The Day After

I was awake at five o'clock this morning again, but not in despair. Just restless.

I walked for an hour as soon as it was light enough, and I walked for another hour at dusk, as wind sent the leaves skittering across the streets. Streetlights came on. I could see inside people's living rooms and kitchens as they watched TV or stood at the kitchen sink, little glimpses of ordinary lives hidden in the daylight.

On one particular part of my route I noticed several Biden/Harris signs and Black Lives Matter signs that weren't there two days ago (and haven't been, this entire election season). I wondered if they were worried about someone taking the signs, or worse. Nearby is the only blatantly Trump house I've noticed. It's hard to miss. The yard is full of clutter, and a Trump banner covers half the shabby siding. The light-up Budweiser signs in the window add a nice touch.

*

I walked seven miles today. The day was almost balmy, really strangely warm, but cloudy. Quiet. I needed the head-clearing quiet.

I think we know, now, how this will go. Now, my fear is complacency. I woke up in the same deeply racist country that existed yesterday and last year and since our country was born and built on the backs of Black people whose descendants have always known what I had the privilege not to see, not really. I shouldn't have been shocked four years ago, and today we should all know that what was really on the ballot was whiteness.

*

None of my conservative-leaning friends are posting angrily about voter fraud. Maybe they're hiding those posts from me, or I've blocked them already. But I have this really terrible habit of reading posts by friends of my friends, and some of my friends have some gems on their lists. I follow a few of them sort of regularly out of this weird masochistic curiosity and I KNOW, I SHOULD STOP THIS. It's ridiculous. But they really do believe, apparently, that Biden cannot win, and if he does, it's a total fraud. Whatever "news" sources they read have told them that Trump was slated to win by a landslide, and I can tell you which sources they're citing, all the while they rant about the "fake news media." And my word, these people needed more school, or teachers who could teach them how to assess the reliability and validity of their sources. Did they not learn this? (These particular folks, mind you, are big fans of "doing your own research.")

Trump is following his own playbook to the letter. He was always going to cheat, because he knew he couldn't win any other way. He was always going to declare voter fraud if he lost. There will be no gracious concession. What's horrifying (although no longer shocking) is how many people believe him. How do you explain, calmly, using small words, that counting all of the mail-in ballots is not voter fraud? Mail-in ballots favor Democrats. It is not a great conspiracy that as those come in, Biden gains votes. This seems very simple to me. These are not even the protestors in Michigan trying to shove their way into downtown Detroit's TCF Center; these are people who live among us and are probably perfectly sweet when they're shopping at Jo-Ann's Fabrics. See my post from last night about being nice.

(Friends, if your friends are posting this garbage -- and they totally are, because I'm following some of them in some weird streak of masochism -- please address it. I know it's uncomfortable, but it's also important. I'm happy to engage with anyone on my actual friends list if I see it, but I'm not going to get into it with my friends' friends. After the 2008 election I told someone that no, Obama wasn't going to take away all this person's guns and 2008 wasn't the last hunting season he'd ever have, and for my troubles I received a message calling me a libtard. I have precisely zero shits to give about what someone thinks about me on the internet, but I do think we need to do work with the people in our lives. And I fully admit I have to figure out how to do this more effectively.)

Do all of the folks who are sure this is massive voter fraud think Trump should sue ALL the states who vote blue? Maybe he should just sue all the voters?

And if we were that good at conspiracies, and fraud, then...wouldn't COVID also be gone today? Instead of hitting our record number of new cases? Asking for a friend.

*

I've been texting or messaging with a couple of former students in the last couple of days. They give me hope and I love them so much and they remind me exactly why I do the work that I do. Plus, one of the great gifts of teaching is keeping relationships with some really fantastic humans I grew rather attached to over our time together.

And they're voting.