Weeping may endure for a night, but joy comes in the morning. - Psalm 30:5.
Yesterday was a good day in this country (the highlight of 2020, I'd argue). I wonder if, years in the future, we will remember where we were and what we were doing when we heard the decisive results of this pivotal 2020 election.
I heard the news (that Joe Biden was projected by all major news outlets to win Pennsylvania and clinch the presidency with its twenty electoral college votes) on Saturday morning (November 7th, 2020), after I had been up all night with a laboring mother who, at 8:27 a.m., delivered her first baby. The mood in the room was already incredibly joyful. As it often is with birth, the pains of labor (particularly ones overnight) sometimes seem interminable... until that baby cries for the first time. To see women and their families welcome new life from their bodies to their arms, and to know that the long journey and all of the struggle was worth it, is one of the most beautiful things to witness in the world (I obviously truly love this part of what I do!).
The charge nurse who helped with the newborn care reported that, while the birth was happening, the election was called. It was basically over (even though votes are still trickling in, they are unlikely to shift the outcome in any meaningful way). The relief, and joy, from that news only added to the spirits of the already jubilant room. Even after 24, 48 or more hours of labor, most women after delivering their baby experience a "birth high," due to a combination of endorphins, adrenaline and oxytocin, the "hormone of love." I had an "election high" (and birth high) the whole rest of the day (and weekend). The suffering, and what seemed like a long night amidst the longest week ever (and during the longest-seeming year ever), was worth the reward at the end, as it so often is after a grueling labor.
The week of the election held a lot of up-and-down emotions for me, and for so many others in my friend and family circle and the majority of people in this nation. It was hard to dare to hope, lest we be disappointed (again). It was hard to sleep. There was a lot of anxiety, fear, resurfaced trauma, and breath-holding. There was so much prayer. When I heard the results, it was like a 100-pound weight was lifted off my shoulders and my heart was unburdened. I could breathe again (in a year that brought us the famous words from the murdered George Floyd). So much emotional energy and mental hard-drive space has been freed up (some people have likened the feeling to escaping an abusive relationship and I heard another grandfather compare the national sentiment to that which accompanied defeating the Nazis at the end of World War 2 [and they actually surrendered!]). Yes, Joe Biden thankfully defeated Donald Trump and it's nice to see a decent, faithful man realize a lifelong dream and triumph over an authoritarian narcissist and sociopath at a critical moment in this history of the country he loves and that he has served for decades (in what turned out to a be nail-bitingly close race for several days). However, it wasn't until later in the day that I truly began to be able to appreciate the history-making that was this election and its implications and I was so moved by the words and pictures I saw.
Look at this striking picture.
In the nearly two hundred and fifty years since our country was founded, we have never had a woman, nor a person of color (or someone who was both!), elected to the vice presidency.
Like there was after Obama's election in 2008 (about which I joyfully
blogged), there was widespread rejoicing, nationally and internationally, including in
India (from where Kamala's mother immigrated to the U.S. as a young woman, as did my own mother). We have a truly stunning human being, a child of immigrants (and a Californian!) as our future vice president.
CNN's
Van Jones had a particularly moving statement about the election results, where he was choking up talking about what this day represented for so many, especially in a year where the Black Lives Matter movement gained a lot of support. I still am haunted by his words following the 2016 result, when he explained the election of Trump as a “white-lash” to the election of Barack Obama.
Later in the evening when the birth center calmed down, I was able to listen to both Biden's and Harris' acceptance speeches. Kamala's, in particular, was (not surprisingly) incredible. She honored her late mother and spoke powerful words that had me in tears.
"And to the woman most responsible for my presence here today — my mother, Shyamala Gopalan Harris, who is always in our hearts.
When she came here from India at the age of 19, maybe she didn’t quite imagine this moment.
But she believed so deeply in an America where a moment like this is possible.
So, I’m thinking about her and about the generations of women — Black Women, Asian, White, Latina, and Native American women throughout our nation’s history who have paved the way for this moment tonight.
Women who fought and sacrificed so much for equality, liberty, and justice for all, including the Black women, who are too often overlooked, but so often prove that they are the backbone of our democracy.
All the women who worked to secure and protect the right to vote for over a century: 100 years ago with the 19th Amendment, 55 years ago with the Voting Rights Act, and now, in 2020, with a new generation of women in our country who cast their ballots and continued the fight for their fundamental right to vote and be heard.
Tonight, I reflect on their struggle, their determination and the strength of their vision — to see what can be unburdened by what has been — I stand on their shoulders.
And what a testament it is to Joe’s character that he had the audacity to break one of the most substantial barriers that exists in our country and select a woman as his vice president.
But while I may be the first woman in this office, I won’t be the last.
Because every little girl watching tonight sees that this is a country of possibilities.
And to the children of our country, regardless of your gender, our country has sent you a clear message: Dream with ambition, lead with conviction, and see yourself in a way that others might not see you, simply because they’ve never seen it before.
And we will applaud you every step of the way."
Representation
matters. How incredible it is for all the black and brown little girls, and boys, in this country to see their faces and their skin tones (and their centuries of struggle) about to be reflected in the highest (well, second-highest, for now) office in the land. I know that Joe Biden will fill his administration and cabinet with a group of people who look like the diverse America we are.
Also being a biracial, brown half-South Indian woman (and once a child) myself, seeing pictures like these gave me all the feels.
Stacey Abrams, another incredible woman of color and the person who should be Georgia's current governor, also changed the entire race and should be honored (I'm currently reading her book,
Our Time is Now). When all the votes are in, a southern state that has not voted collectively for a Democratic president since
1992 may flip blue this year, thanks to her efforts in registering over 800,000 new voters in her home state and protecting the votes especially of people of color, whose voices are so often silenced (but were certainly heard loudly this year). The numbers have been there, but the investment and
belief have not (until now). Thank you, Stacey, for being a patriot, a hero, and an inspiration for so many. (If you feel so moved, you can contribute to her organization to fight voter suppression as well as to critical Georgia January senate runoff races
here). And, to black and brown women and people everywhere, who showed up in big numbers this year to save our fragile democracy, we owe and celebrate you. The country was careening towards a ditch, and you took the wheel and swerved back to the road.
In her concession speech in 2016, I remember Hillary Clinton quoting Galatians 6:9 "Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up." I give a special thank you to her and for so many other amazing women (even in defeat), who have paved the way for this moment. We haven't had a female president--yet (and, at the moment, we also don't have a former president willing to concede). But right now, it feels palpably possible that it could happen in the near future (my lifetime?) even though it wasn’t meant to be in 2016. I am a believer that good things come to those who wait and keep the faith (and women are forced to be good at waiting). What a sweet day it will one day be.
Listening to calming and positive messages of unity, possibility, and the future (and in full sentences which are also appropriate for kids’ ears!) has been so uplifting. This country is still incredibly divided (a horrifying more than 70 million people voted to re-elect our president and are disappointed their candidate didn’t win), and there's so much hard work yet to be done. We will always be fighting an uphill battle in the anti-democratic Senate, gerrymandered state districts, and the courts against a party that has the demographic trend working against it and thus has to cheat the system (or claim election fraud) to maintain power. However, this year, democracy was on the ballot, and it survived; the good soul of this country prevailed. It feels so redemptive to have the popular vote finally result in majoritarian rule as so often (especially in my voting career, starting with disastrous Bush v. Gore) it hasn't, in what turned out to be the election with the highest turnout in our country’s history (amidst the worst global pandemic in a century, nonetheless!). I am confident that President-elect Biden will serve and strive to be a president for all Americans, building bridges and fighting for even those who did everything in their power to keep him out of office and who baselessly maligned his character.
What is clear is that acts of citizenship are required daily, not just only every two or four years at the ballot box. We all need to stay engaged, keep showing up, and we should never forget the dramatic difference between how disenfranchised we felt after the election in 2016 and how we felt today. Let’s never be complacent or secure in our privilege regardless of who is leading us or which candidate seems the “most electable.” I’m ready to put in the hard work.
Nevertheless, I want to pause to appreciate and recognize this moment of joy, and to welcome back an emotion that is so wonderful to feel again-- hope.
On this day, I am proud of our country.
God Bless America.
