An open letter to 49 percenters
Nov. 5th, 2004 10:41 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
thebratqueenOkay, last night was the 51 percenters and the registered Republicans. Today we do the other side.
Get over it.
Seriously. Cry, drink, curse, mourn, do whatever you've got to do to work the shock out of your system and then get the fuck over it.
We lost. It sucks. So does life, now get a helmet.
Stop hating Republicans and the 51 percenters. Seriously. Right now. Hate is cheap, hate is easy, and hate makes you look like an idiot. Stop it right now.
Stop blaming Republicans and the 51 percenters. If we didn't win it's because we didn't do our job. That's our fault. You want to hate someone for that, take a look in the mirror.
"But they cheated!" Maybe they did, maybe they didn't. But whose fault is it for not stopping them if they did? Whose fault is it for not getting out enough votes if they didn't?
"But we tried so hard!" Sure. Guess what? Didn't work. Now try harder.
Try harder to be noticed, try harder to be heard, try harder to educate because the things we did before weren't good enough and that's nobody's fault but our own.
Sound tough? Sound like a lot of no fun? Get used to it.
Goodness is work. Tolerance is work. Education is work. You know why Bush's efforts got more return than ours did? Because he took the easiest path. Making people doubt, making people afraid - that's the easiest thing in the world. A moron could do it, and hey look, a moron did.
How's it feel to realize you got outwitted by an idiot? Yeah, it's not a proud moment for me either. Suck it up, try harder.
If somebody out there thinks it's okay to hate gay people because they're just like animals, or it's okay to destroy human rights in the name of fighting terror, or it's okay to destroy the health of our society because science doesn't agree with their religion then it's our fault for not teaching them better.
We tried. I know. We volunteered and gave money and wrote letters and spoke out and got involved and it still wasn't good enough.
It sucks. It's frustrating.
Suck it up. Try harder.
If you really, deep down, give a damn about what you believe in then do something about this. Because let me tell you right now that if you give up now then all you will ever be is a loser. The other side will look at you and know that they're right and you're wrong. After all this time, are you finally agreeing with them?
Suck it up. Try harder.
This isn't easy. It isn't fun. Nobody's patting us on the back and telling us how good we are. In fact, just the opposite. Guess what? That's how it works. Now stop riding on the coattails of the blacks who were killed in the civil rights movement and the women who were tortured in the suffragette movement and do your own damned work to make things better.
Will it have to get that extreme? I don't know. But now's the time to take a good long look at yourself and find out just how much your beliefs really matter to you. Are you willing to give them up just because not enough people agreed with you? Then are you really sure those were your beliefs in the first place?
This isn't a game, or a story. This is life. The things we do have real consequences. There isn't going to be somebody else who comes in and makes it better. That job is ours and if we don't do it then we've got nobody else to blame for the shitty way things are.
The world doesn't change because we want it to. It doesn't change because we think it should. It changes because we get out there, grab people by the shoulders and say "No. You can't do it this way. You can't be greedy, selfish, hateful, and cruel. It's not right, it's not good, and we can be so much better than that."
It's going to be hard. It's going to be painful. It's going to make us weep and cry and want to give up in despair.
It's also going to be worth it.
Now try harder.
ETA: What can/should we do?
Get over it.
Seriously. Cry, drink, curse, mourn, do whatever you've got to do to work the shock out of your system and then get the fuck over it.
We lost. It sucks. So does life, now get a helmet.
Stop hating Republicans and the 51 percenters. Seriously. Right now. Hate is cheap, hate is easy, and hate makes you look like an idiot. Stop it right now.
Stop blaming Republicans and the 51 percenters. If we didn't win it's because we didn't do our job. That's our fault. You want to hate someone for that, take a look in the mirror.
"But they cheated!" Maybe they did, maybe they didn't. But whose fault is it for not stopping them if they did? Whose fault is it for not getting out enough votes if they didn't?
"But we tried so hard!" Sure. Guess what? Didn't work. Now try harder.
Try harder to be noticed, try harder to be heard, try harder to educate because the things we did before weren't good enough and that's nobody's fault but our own.
Sound tough? Sound like a lot of no fun? Get used to it.
Goodness is work. Tolerance is work. Education is work. You know why Bush's efforts got more return than ours did? Because he took the easiest path. Making people doubt, making people afraid - that's the easiest thing in the world. A moron could do it, and hey look, a moron did.
How's it feel to realize you got outwitted by an idiot? Yeah, it's not a proud moment for me either. Suck it up, try harder.
If somebody out there thinks it's okay to hate gay people because they're just like animals, or it's okay to destroy human rights in the name of fighting terror, or it's okay to destroy the health of our society because science doesn't agree with their religion then it's our fault for not teaching them better.
We tried. I know. We volunteered and gave money and wrote letters and spoke out and got involved and it still wasn't good enough.
It sucks. It's frustrating.
Suck it up. Try harder.
If you really, deep down, give a damn about what you believe in then do something about this. Because let me tell you right now that if you give up now then all you will ever be is a loser. The other side will look at you and know that they're right and you're wrong. After all this time, are you finally agreeing with them?
Suck it up. Try harder.
This isn't easy. It isn't fun. Nobody's patting us on the back and telling us how good we are. In fact, just the opposite. Guess what? That's how it works. Now stop riding on the coattails of the blacks who were killed in the civil rights movement and the women who were tortured in the suffragette movement and do your own damned work to make things better.
Will it have to get that extreme? I don't know. But now's the time to take a good long look at yourself and find out just how much your beliefs really matter to you. Are you willing to give them up just because not enough people agreed with you? Then are you really sure those were your beliefs in the first place?
This isn't a game, or a story. This is life. The things we do have real consequences. There isn't going to be somebody else who comes in and makes it better. That job is ours and if we don't do it then we've got nobody else to blame for the shitty way things are.
The world doesn't change because we want it to. It doesn't change because we think it should. It changes because we get out there, grab people by the shoulders and say "No. You can't do it this way. You can't be greedy, selfish, hateful, and cruel. It's not right, it's not good, and we can be so much better than that."
It's going to be hard. It's going to be painful. It's going to make us weep and cry and want to give up in despair.
It's also going to be worth it.
Now try harder.
ETA: What can/should we do?
