My Reaction to the Presidential Elections Outcome
“If you were able to overlook a genocide and cast a vote for Harris, you already know how a conservative was able to overlook Trump’s extremism and vote for him.” - Meg Indurti
On Wednesday, I woke up to yet more videos of little babies shrouded with bloody white sheets held tightly by their parents who want to embrace them for one last time before being laid to rest.
I tried to look into the parents’ eyes to try to catch even a glimpse of the unimaginable grief they are feeling. To imagine the chaos and smell in the hospital yard or morgue where most of these videos are recorded. To imagine their starved and exhausted bodies having to endure this profound pain.
For many this has been our daily routine for nearly 14 months. Nearly 400 days.
When Trump was elected in 2016, I struggled to process the outcome. I could not understand how tens of millions of Americans picked a man who lacked basic human decency to lead us.
I was angry and filled with disgust.
For the past year, I grappled with the same feelings of anger and disgust as my community and country turned a blind eye to a live-streamed genocide, funded by our taxpayer dollars.
A Democratic president green lit a genocide and the base stayed silent. Democrats and liberals called him a “decent man” while his administration facilitated over 6,000 flights of weapons - an average of two shipments every day and over $22 billion to slaughter babies.
What could make tens of millions of Americans stay silent during a live-streamed genocide?
There were more despicable actions in the past four years.
What could make tens of millions of Americans turn a blind eye to immigration polices they found appalling when Trump implemented them?
Quite frankly, the election of a man with no basic human decency is less surprising and easier to process after witnessing the indifference and depravity for over a year as our taxpayer dollars claimed the lives of over 368,000 innocent Palestinians (a July 2024 estimate).
Perhaps the biggest lesson from being involved in community organizing and electoral politics for eight years is that we as a community lack solidarity. Hundreds of activists who organized during the Trump years in Howard County are sitting at home today.
Why? What changed?
We are still caging children at the border, we are polluting more than ever, our healthcare system is still in shambles, black and brown children still face incredible challenges, we are involved in more military conflicts and economic wars than ever, and we are witnessing the industrial scale slaughter of 2.3 million people with our taxpayer dollars.
To comprehend and process the election outcome, one has to ask themselves, what they did for the past 400 days? If the analysis and conclusions reached are not in part informed by the answers to that question then we as a community and nation will not learn.
Yes, America is a racist, sexist, homophobic, and xenophobic nation. What’s new?
What tangible actions did we take in the past four years to fight racism and xenophobia? Did we march on the streets or organize to end the treatment of immigrants at the border? If not, why not? Because the president was a Democrat?
They came for the Palestinians and we did not speak up. Why? Because we were not Palestinian?
People in Gaza were sharing one bathroom for 600 - a statistic that was reported months ago. Women lacked feminine hygiene products. Pregnant women were shot. Thousands of people were detained by the terrorist IOF and subjected to dehumanizing conditions. They were raped and tortured.
Where was the cry for women by those who suddenly began experiencing the beginning of a dark era on November 6? To be clear the fear and panic is not misplaced. But it is not rooted in the principles of shared struggles.
If our shared humanity with Palestinians did not compel us to act and speak with a collective voice and outrage, how are we any different from those who picked Trump?
Whether we like it or not this is not on Trump voters. We, the American people, built this rotten system of death and destruction that thrives off the suffering of the innocent.
Those who feel shock and horror today, take the time to pull yourself together. Then it’s time to act.
Our political system is rotten, but no need to take my word for it.
I urge you to get involved. Attend PTA, County Council, Board of Education, and other community meetings. See the rot for yourself and then it’s time to clean house.
Forget Washington DC.
At least 90 percent of what affects us on a daily basis happens in county and city government.
We have to act according to the principles of solidarity and shared struggle. We are seeing the consequences of political action based on our own singular proximate interest. Our children might be okay, but we must ask why we have children in Howard County who rely on free and reduced meals attend dilapidated schools with large class sizes?
Why do we send our kids to attend classroom trailers that are unsafe?
Why do we have a community that purports to support all children, but censors them when they organize walkouts protesting the Gaza genocide?
Why do we spend hundreds of millions of dollars in taxpayer subsidy to prop up wealthy developers while our taxes skyrocket and our infrastructure crumbles?
Why do we continue to elect corrupt politicians who receive hundreds of thousands of dollars from developers in campaign contributions?
Why are critical functions that should be performed by county government handled by underfunded and hamstrung nonprofits?
Why does Howard County send over $4 million a year to apartheid Israel to kill babies?
This is not the time to despair. This is the time to roll up our sleeves and take action.
Feel free to reach out. I can help you get started.