Call to Arms

It has been one year since we woke up with that sick feeling in our stomachs, knowing that we had four more years of Bush Jr. There was still some hope that someone would prove the Republicans rigged the machines and stole the election (which I will always believe, I don't care if it makes me sound like a crackpot), but it was a faint chance at best. One of my co-workers and I were discussing how horrible we felt November 3, 2004--how bad we envisioned things would be--yet, now, looking back our predictions seem almost optimistic. Things are so much worse. An American city almost wiped off the map and two Supreme Court vacancies, just to start out. In the past few weeks, there is a sense that the tide is turning, that the Republicans will be held accountable, that the Democrats have finally, as Jon Stewart put it, grown donkey balls, and that there is chance the country will start to right (or left) itself. Let's hope so. Anyway, in the wake of the election, Molly, who was living in D.C., was bombarded with e-mails and phone calls regarding the reaction in the nation's capital. She responded with a call to arms that inspired everyone who one read it and planted the seed for this blog. I am posting it here as a ray of light on this dark anniversary.



Hi everyone,
I have gotten many emails and phone calls about the election. I wanted to write about what it is like here in DC and then what I feel we have been challenged to do.

On Tuesday night and Wednesday morning I think most democrats were devastated, myself included. I work in an office that appeared dazed and certainly defeated. No one could really believe what had happened and even worse what would happen to us all over the next four years. Then the news broke that Kerry had called Bush and there were many tears and even more rants. I think everyone watched Kerry and Edward's speech with a great sadness. But after that was all over the anger and determination took over. The general feeling here in DC among progressives and democrats is that we will fight this administration at every turn.

My initial reaction was, well I guess I will leave DC and return when the disaster is over, but of course that won't work. This administration has awoken an entire generation of people that is watching their every move. But watching will not get us anywhere, we must all fight them at every confirmation, every backward policy decision, every mispronunciation of 3 syllable words. I know we will loose a ton, maybe even the majority of the fights but the important thing is that we stand up and say no loud enough for the middle of America to hear us and wake up from their haze of fear and misguided "morals."

I know alot of us are scared of what will happen in the next four years. Well Bush wanted us to be afraid and now we are, but I know that I will use my fear of his policies against him.

So basically I think that what we need is a call to arms against this administration. It will be a long hard 4 years but think of all the opportunities to be clever with shirts and signs at protests. Kym is printing up "My body is not an incubator" shirts as we speak.

I will talk to you all soon.

MOLLY