Your post-election reality check from the other side of the illusion — go ahead, push the curtain aside and join me!

I know the importance of gratitudes but how many times can we paint a pile of shit and continue to put off fixing the structural issues that too many people don’t even understand?

This country was founded on White supremacy and for owners of property. While legally, many things have changed, too many undercurrents and hidden narratives remain. The current government is structured to violently perpetuate and expand the power of the ruling classes.

I am grateful to many people for their ongoing work against the status quo. For people who truly vote their values in the face of great adversity and, at times, great risk. Yet I still remain very dissatisfied with the elites that will run this country off the labor of so many who will continue to go without healthcare, food, homes, adequate childcare, decent educational opportunities, safe work spaces, accessible outdoor spaces, and so much more.

I really am struggling with celebratory post and ones of gratitudes. Yes, so many people worked very hard to get a billionaire out of office, who is more a symptom of so many wrongs than the cause of them. Biden and the blue waves, while maybe essential to remove the blight at the head of this country, do very little to create change.

Bandaids will be applied and pretty window dressings will let white people and others with adequate resources go back safely to their homes and families and jobs insulated from those they barely see. People in the US are still a long ways from understanding the realities of Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) who our country extracts every last ounce of being from. Add in xenophobia, homophobia, and ableism and we still have a majority of people being oppressed. Add in classism and the ongoing inequity with money and you have a group of people struggling to survive who cannot learn and fight the fights that are essential to improving this country.

I will see maybe a 5% cost of living increase on my benefits (this year was 3% I think pre-COVID) with zero advancement to adequate healthcare in a system free of racism and eugenics against anyone deemed as other and “less than” by too many people in this country. People on the streets will continue to go without homes, but worse, they will continue to be hidden away and kept far from justice. Black women and men, disabled people, immigrants, and more will continue to remain hyper vigilant against harm from the police (who are trained in the traditions of slavery to protect those who own property over those who fail to be valued for just being human). Those imprisoned on false charges, forced to accept the lessor of 2 evils because the system is stacked against them.

When will we stop inflicting trauma on so many with generations of trauma encoded in their DNA already?

Enjoy your gratitudes and celebrations. As we head into another chapter of death and genocide.