One Week Out

Well, I didn't post much of anything before the election, mainly because I was much too busy keeping an eye on what everyone else was saying. The night before and the entire day of election day I worked at a phone bank organized by the AFL-CIO and called people from Florida. At six pm when we were getting second wave poll numbers that were favoring Kerry in Pennsylvania and we were given new lists and told to start calling Iowa. So, Florida and Iowa, nice. My efforts pretty much went for naught in those two days, but it made the waiting a bit easier for me. And the nice union people seemed to appreciate me spending ten hours in their phone bank.

But, everyone knows what happened, and since then there has been the forboding and the grieving, and the silver lining talk, and now everyone seems to be on to the critique and what-did-we-do-wrong talk. The first couple days after, I felt dreadful, full of dread. By later in the week, I started to take comfort in the possibility of doing things differently in response to the election. This race was all about dividing us from people who are different from us, all about the Republicans using our differences to gain political control and power for their own malevolent ends. I started thinking about I could do things to counteract that and be supportive of the groundswell of activity this election has engendered. Here is a sampling of measures taken or under consideration
1) I joined the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, NARAL Pro-Choice America, and made a contribution to the Kensington Welfare Rights Union. Just like Joshua Micah Marshall said I should.

2) All we have been hearing about is the Christian Right, but next time I want to hear the pundits talk about the Christian Left. Thus, I am going to start going to a church. This idea that a particulary subsegment of Christianity has a monopoly of moral values and political engagement makes me crazy. Obviously on the left side of the fence there is no corollary to the Christian right, but I think I can't complain about the absence of religious activism for social justice when I am not supporting and engaging in some faith community. One reason I didn't really go to church was that I wasn't too keen on the contradictions inherent in being active in a church and public about homosexuality. When I think about that now, I really have to admit to myself that this is somethinge of a rationalization. New York is brimming with leftie, progressive, and open-minded congregations who would love to have nice bisexual lady. I think the truth is that I never pursued a congregation or a spiritual home because I really simply never felt compelled to make it a priority. But now I do. Plus, I am going to be praying more, during these next four years. So the search for a congregation is on.

3) Also, I think I am going to do some volunteer work in my neighborhood. I was sort of offended by a frontline community activist type I met with a few weeks ago who told me that I didn't really live in Washington Heights, because it was the white, gentrifying part of Washington Heights. (She said it more nicely that this.) See the thing I said about the race being all about dividing people who are different from us. So, I'd like to do something to help some organization or program out up here close to where I live.