But now, at home, watching Florida go to Bush, seeing how very red that electoral map has turned, hearing how every anti-gay-marriage motion has been carried, I just feel sick. I want to turn off the tv, but I can't bring myself to do it.
I was feeling all…
I was feeling all energized about this election, after several hours going door to door, making sure registered voters were still heading out to vote, and that they knew where to go. Two young Muslim girls, Mariam (age 11) and Huriya (age 10), walked with me and excitedly asked the people whose doors we were knocking on if they had voted yet. Sometimes they asked in Urdu, or Hindi, when we found a grandmother who didn't speak English. Once, we were invited in for tea by an approving aunty. And at the restaurant where we stopped in for samosas (to take back to the Indo-American Center organizing headquarters), the owner fervently thanked us for what we were doing. It was an overwhelmingly positive experience, and at the end of it, I actually felt hopeful.
Oh, how I want to cry. I sit here watching the numbers change, in utter disbelief over how many people are voting for Bush. How is this possible? How did it come to this?
Everyone I know has already gone to bed and so I sit here reading journals, texting friends on the west coast, waiting. I’m afraid to go to sleep, afraid of waking up to what appears to be inevitable.
I have been writing up my thoughts on the election – will be posting them shortly – but basically they are an echo of your post.
Severe depression and concern for the US and the world.
Shannon