Day Zero

DAY ZERO

It’s Not … But it can be again

https://youtu.be/VMqcLUqYqrs

I sat in my CLJ 110 (rights, justice and the law) class yesterday, reading through the UN report written last year on US discrimination on women … I glanced thru their recommendations … and my mind wandered to the upcoming election which seems to have so much about women. I wondered what would happen next.

I voted for Jill Stein over a week ago but I know she doesn’t win. Neither does Gary Johnson. Most likely it will be Hillary. A woman of fallible character and the worst of my gender. Trump? What of him? I now know that almost half my fellow countrymen are openly sexist, racist xenophobes, or at the very least are willing to elect the most despicable candidate to enter a presidential race in my lifetime to counter a fear they have … will they win the vote? And of what are they fearful? I cannot understand.

The crazy uncle who rants about those damn foreigners, those construction workers that intimidate women who walk by, those radical tea partiers that want to ram pro life agendas down the throats (or should I say vaginal probes up the vaginas) of women who find themselves pregnant … these people have found a community … a voice … acceptance.

Reading the report provided clarity when reviewing what other countries think of us in an unbiased and informed way. I think my academic pursuits, as has been much in life, have been infiltrated with a Western bias – a belief we are somehow superior – we know best.

I know it isn’t true … deep down I haven’t believed that in years. But being the eternal optimist, I have no doubt we could be again, however it would require a commitment from all of us … and a shift in our national discourse. We need to - at the same time – get back to basics, yet really become better than we ever have been.

I am an idealist but also a realist. Disillusioned absolutely. I know it’s a rigged game yet I still haven’t given up wanting to play. I still believe in the dream.

It is difficult to say what happened over the course of the past several months. I initially supported Bernie Sanders however school and work and interning didn’t allow me time to actively participate. I voted for him in the primaries and that was the beginning and end of my support. I didn’t do any of the things I did for Obama. I feel bad about that now. I rationalize I would have had Bernie been the nominee.

I remember saying more than once, if I must I will vote for Clinton. As a last resort. I said this even before the Republican nominee was Trump.

But then I was asked to sign a petition to get Jill Stein of the Green Party on the ballot in Illinois while walking near campus. I researched who she was. I liked her party platforms. She seemed well-reasoned and balanced. A doctor who practiced a more holistic lifestyle. Still, I worked on the Obama campaign for almost two years. His superpac after that. I have three Christmas cards from the First Family. I’ve regularly attended the Kankakee Democratic Party’s meetings and events. I’ve phone banked and marched and poll watched and organized alongside them. They were one of the deciding factors to move to this county from Iroquois. They were my tribe, or so I thought.

Of course there was always a vibe I felt being a single woman at functions - like I was unwelcome by some. Confirmed by an incident when the wife of a political ally told me to ‘keep walking’ and ‘stay away’ from her husband at the 4^th of July parade. A little old lady, telling me to stay away from her husband – plenty old enough to be my father. But I digress.

My support of Jill Stein within this circle was met rather rudely. I was called irrational. My vote would be a ‘protest’ vote, after all my candidate was not electable and could not govern.  I stopped attending meetings. If there was an alternative to Hillary Clinton, of course I would take it.  My vote is sacred.

Of course the idea is not wrong. I was protesting. My party betrayed me, so when I saw a conscionable way out, I took it. My candidate realistically was not electable because she was not given a voice within the system so she remained virtually unknown. The media panders to the two-party system and its candidates, and with a few exceptions ignores or antagonizes third party candidates. Could Jill Stein govern? She has great ideas, and her voice is her own as she is free of corporate funding. But she could be perceived as lacking experience. Additionally, third party candidates don’t get attention, and therefore don’t get properly vetted.

I begin a 73 day ‘fast’ tomorrow. I will limit my intake to 500 calories or less.

I plan to begin campaigns to change the primary process and the presidential debates. Every vote should count, and people should be able to see all the candidates who’ve made it on the ballots discuss the issues constructively. People deserve to understand the issues and where the candidates stand on them.