American Broadside

waiting for the final count

I have decided not to watch the election returns this evening. An hour of the talking heads going on about how carefully they were being at making predictions was all I could take. I think I got one minute of news for every 40 minutes of breathless non-news.

This morning, in the cold wet dawn, I stood in a long snaking line, waiting over an hour for my turn to vote. It was time well spent. Everyone was cheerful and festive.
It seemed to me that we all knew that this was an historic moment and thus, we were on our best behavior. I live in an overwhelmingly liberal precinct, yet I did not hear any particularly nasty anti Bush remarks. I think everyone in the line knew that we were not unanimous in our political opinions and tried kept it civil. At 8:30 a.m., I became the 380th person to vote at our polling. Becky voted two hours later and she was number 685.

This afternoon, with the weather much improved, Becky and I joined the ACT folks at a local church and, after some brief training on door knocking etiquette, went out canvassing. Our task was to encourage whomever we met to go vote and to offer them information or arrange a ride. While at the church, we ran into an old friend, Susan, and teamed with her and two other committed folks, Art and Sandra, to go knocking on doors.

For the next couple of hours we walked up and down neighborhood streets, knocking on doors, talking to whomever we encountered, and hanging flyers on doorknobs: green side out if the person had voted, red side out if no one answered the door. We used the flyers to signal later canvassers which houses needed a repeat visit.

After canvassing, we returned to the church to turn in our tally sheets, maps, and unused flyers. Then we sat around and talked. Art and Sandra were engaging and interesting people. Sandra, reminded us that we white liberals need to make much a greater effort to understand institutional racism and quit resting on our very old and dusty laurels. Over the past 20-30 years, the gains that we made in the 60’s and 70’s have eroded and Liberals have not reacted or fought back. Racism never disappeared, but today it is much more accepted and not just among the right wing.

Until recently, we white Liberals were terribly complacent, however, now it is time to renew and re-energize our commitment to those basic liberal beliefs. We need to complete the struggle that we were involved in those many years ago: put an end to racism and bigotry, promote a genuine coming together with black Americans, renew our commitment to helping the least powerful and most vulnerable in our society, and insure good education for all of our children.

Racism is not a problem that black Americans must solve. It is problem that we white Americans have and that we must solve ourselves.

We white Americans need to become aware of the unspoken privileges that we have simply by being white: powerful entitlements that we do not know we have. For instance, when was the last time that the police stopped you while you were driving? For me it has been years. For young black men it is a common occurrence. Likewise, when was the last time that the police stopped you while you were walking in your neighborhood? Again, for me it has been many years but for black men and women it is common.

Racism is a white American problem that is the responsibility of white Americans to solve.

As Becky and I were driving home, I turned to her and said, “This is why I’ve been involved in politics this last year. I meet thoughtful, interesting people that still believe in a better world.”

At this time, I have no idea who the next President is going to be, but I do know that regardless of who it is, the battle will just be starting. Reactionary beliefs have become entrenched in the United States. It will take years of struggle to re-establish reason, equality, compassion, and civility.

Now comes the really interesting part.

posted by Les @ 7:56 PM