Hope

Photo: L. Weikel

I’ve been strapped in and riding an emotional rollercoaster since November 3^rd, 2020. The ups and downs! Good grief; at various moments they’ve caused my stomach to lurch up into my throat and in others my heart to drop to my toes. In spite of all the remarkable victories that were achieved for so many who believe in democracy, justice, and the essential goodness of people, the rumors and rumblings I heard emanating from Washington D.C. were starting to take a toll. But then: a ray of hope. Actually, a brilliant, shining, beam of hope.

The first major hill of the most recent rollercoaster ride was climbed in that slow, click-click-click crawl, as we approached Election Day. So to be clear, I’m not even referencing what it’s felt like to live through most of the past four years. No; I’m starting this ‘ride’ just before the election.

We all knew Election Day was fraught with potential opportunities for disaster, sabotage, violence, or other shenanigans. So the days leading up to the election were experienced through the lens of an undercurrent of dread. We were all just trying to hold ourselves and our country together while ‘expecting the unexpected.’ Not an easy task, especially with so much at stake.

Cresting the Hill

We crested that first major incline of the rollercoaster and started tearing down the other side. DT claimed false victory in the early morning hours of November 4^th, but about five days or so later, with almost all of the mail in votes finally counted in states that weren’t allowed to begin counting them until after in-person voting took place, a different result was ‘called.’

Over the next couple of weeks we were whipped side-to-side as onslaught after onslaught was waged on our system. Some states were subjected to outrageous accusations and my emotions, I’ll admit, were especially attenuated, as I took great umbrage at people (both inside and outside my state) wielding lies about Pennsylvania in particular.

Then there was the Georgia run-off election of two Senators in early January. The fact that both the first Black man and the first Jewish man ever were elected to represent Georgia was a great and miraculous day indeed. What a message of inclusion and power-to-the-people those results conveyed.

Whip-Sawed Senses

And then there was January 6^th, 2021: a day that will truly live in more infamy than even Pearl Harbor because this attack on our country, on our republic, on our sacred halls of democracy, and our sense of democratic principles was perpetrated by our fellow citizens.

Following the horror of what transpired for all the world to see, I started hearing rumblings of ‘power sharing’ with the Republicans. I heard rumors that Mitch McConnell was up to his old tricks of outrageously abusive manipulations of Senate rules and norms. And worse, it sounded like the Democrats, in spite of their (albeit slim) majorities in both Houses of Congress and the White House, were going to roll over.

To be honest, this is when I started feeling a sense of abject hopelessness. My roller coaster ride was making me feel nauseous.

But then I watched this interview.

It was as if the skies parted and I heard some voices singing. So…in case you missed it, here’s an interview that I encourage you to watch in full, especially if you’ve been feeling the way I was feeling.

I’m also attaching the transcript, in case you don’t want to watch the interview. But I have to tell you: the idealism and fire emanating from Senator Schumer is almost intoxicating. It’s definitely a beam of hope.