Thoughts After the Election, mine and others
This year was my first time voting, and while I found it an empowering experience, so that my back-brain started thinking 'hey, if I can affect the outcome of who becomes president, what else can I do?' I wasn't as caught up in the election frenzy as many other people. I think this is because recently I've been focusing on day-to-day life and getting through classes and stress -- thinking too far ahead or too much outside my bubble-world would either add more stress or help me to procrastinate. Last year I barely knew what went on outside my campus. This year I've been doing better, and thinking a little more about the grand world I'm a part of, but for some reason the earth-shaking reaction that others had passed me by. It was more of a subtle gasp of relief than an "OH MY GOD OH MY GOD" reaction.
In every election, someone wins, and someone loses. (Actually, more than one person loses, but those other people aren't seriously considered as having a chance to begin with.) The people who supported the candidate who won are ecstatic, and the people who supported the cadidate who lost are filled with feelings of doom. Life works in cycles, and over the course of time everyone who votes will get the chance to feel either ecstatic or doomed. But in my world, focused as I've been on smaller scales (and the president is necessarily a large scale), I recognize that there are ways to get things done that barely involve the president.
We watched a movie today is Sociology class, about the benefits that parents, epecially mothers, recieve in other countries, and how the USA is so behind on providing even simple paid maternity/paternity leave (California is the only state that mandates such) that it's shocking. How many presidents have been in office since people began working towards a legislation on maternity/paternity leave? Or the fact that it is legal to discriminate against mothers during the hireing process? And furthermore, studies show that benefits such as maternity leave actually improve employee productivity and the economy. So I say again, how many different presidents, either Democrat or Republican, have we gone through since people began advocating for such things?
Things start from the bottom up, and our daily lives are where they begin. People have to want something for it to get done. And if enough people want something, it will eventually get done. But that doesn't mean that it will happen fast. And in the process, people will have to work together.
If we can agree on nothing else, we should be able to agree on the fact that we are all human, and we all live on the same planet. We will have to interact with each other in our daily lives. So let's at least be polite.
There are two posts that I'd like to share. The first is titled An Open Letter to Red America, and it talks about America as a place of democracy, and how we should keep that spirit alive. The second, titled Work, is a piece sartorias wrote about how change does not stop at the voting booth -- in order to really affect change you have to bring it into your daily life.
In every election, someone wins, and someone loses. (Actually, more than one person loses, but those other people aren't seriously considered as having a chance to begin with.) The people who supported the candidate who won are ecstatic, and the people who supported the cadidate who lost are filled with feelings of doom. Life works in cycles, and over the course of time everyone who votes will get the chance to feel either ecstatic or doomed. But in my world, focused as I've been on smaller scales (and the president is necessarily a large scale), I recognize that there are ways to get things done that barely involve the president.
We watched a movie today is Sociology class, about the benefits that parents, epecially mothers, recieve in other countries, and how the USA is so behind on providing even simple paid maternity/paternity leave (California is the only state that mandates such) that it's shocking. How many presidents have been in office since people began working towards a legislation on maternity/paternity leave? Or the fact that it is legal to discriminate against mothers during the hireing process? And furthermore, studies show that benefits such as maternity leave actually improve employee productivity and the economy. So I say again, how many different presidents, either Democrat or Republican, have we gone through since people began advocating for such things?
Things start from the bottom up, and our daily lives are where they begin. People have to want something for it to get done. And if enough people want something, it will eventually get done. But that doesn't mean that it will happen fast. And in the process, people will have to work together.
If we can agree on nothing else, we should be able to agree on the fact that we are all human, and we all live on the same planet. We will have to interact with each other in our daily lives. So let's at least be polite.
There are two posts that I'd like to share. The first is titled An Open Letter to Red America, and it talks about America as a place of democracy, and how we should keep that spirit alive. The second, titled Work, is a piece sartorias wrote about how change does not stop at the voting booth -- in order to really affect change you have to bring it into your daily life.