My inbox has been filling up with statements from candidates and party leaders from all over the state and country about last night’s election. I hope you have enough bandwidth and emotional capacity for yet one more.
I was watching a recording this weekend of a South Carolina Joint Insurance Study Committee session (yes, that’s what I like to do on weekends – don’t judge). In it, Maria Cox Lamb, our State Coordinator for Flood Mitigation Programs, said the following:
Unfortunately, when you have a disaster, you only have about a year and a half of people remembering that disaster.
To me, it appears as if many in our country indeed have forgotten the disaster that was the first Trump presidency. We had riots in the cities. We had empty shelves in the grocery stores. We had chaos in the financial markets.
But that was too long ago. Much of America has forgotten (even if we haven’t).
Instead, they’ve focused on the more recent disasters of high inflation (despite it being found in every nation and despite the US coming out of it faster and stronger than any other) or of high illegal immigration (even though they shot down a bipartisan bill to address it).
Short-term memory can be such a weakness in our political decision-making.
But then again, I can also see how it can be useful. Let’s have some short-term memory ourselves! Let’s not dwell too long on the tragedy of this election because there’s another one coming in two years. Don’t forget, much of Trump’s plans the first time around were thwarted because of the “blue tsunami” that hit him two years into his presidency. We can – we must – work to deliver that again.
On behalf of the GWCDP, I want to issue a special thank-you to our wonderful candidates! Every one was a hard-working, beautiful individual that I would have been proud to have represent me. We’re also grateful for all of the hard-working volunteers and contributors who helped fuel those campaigns.
As I wrote on my own campaign FB page:
There is honor in the fight.
There is value in your voice.
A friend reached out to me this morning to share a beautiful poem authored by someone he knew. I found it very moving and to be just what the spiritual doctor prescribed for me today. So I share it with you below.
from J. Drew Lanham
To walk in a mad world,
but not be mad.
To not imagine how it happened,
but know the all too painful why.
To mourn hope’s demise,
but revive it from deep within.
To weaken at the knees,
but stand strong in my belief.
To feel broken,
but somehow begin the repair.
To have justice denied
but know it must come of my own making
To be empty,
but not full of hate.
To know despair,
but make short the relationship.
To have worth demeaned
but know my worth’s meaning.
To have no words,
but find something worthy to say.
To have confusion be the choice,
but see my own way clear.
To be bitter,
but find sweetness in kindred hugs.
To have the game cheated away
but my life’s practice soundly played.
To wallow in all this misery,
but wash clean in worthy mission after.
To be lost
but keep the bearing home in heart’s map.
To have the heaviness weigh two tons
but find lightness knowing I’m not alone.
To lose trust in so-called-friends and neighbors,
but find faith in those more mindfully close.
To want better in some tomorrow to come,
someday
beyond this day
whenever that time might come,
These are my pleas, my promises to self, my solemn prayer;
To whatever God or gods might be listening this dark morning.
