I don’t have a lot of what might be termed “time” today, but I have just been overwhelmed with a sense of the kind of history we’re living through in this country.
We have seen a lot of mess and unpleasantry in recent years, it’s true. The attacks on the rights of women to reproductive choice are a genuine step backward, even if (I believe) a temporary one. The struggle to give individual human beings the same say in the workings of our society as we’ve given corporations is far, far from over. Islamophobia remains an unambiguous blight on our collective conscience.
But dude.
Dude!
Look at what else is going on! Look at the tides that are turning around us, even as we take stock of the horizon!
- First black President – totally still counts, because it’s actually only been four years (almost to the day, actually) since that even became a possibility.
- Unparalleled strides in the fight for LGBTQ civil rights. DADT – gone! DOMA – unsupported by the White House! The President says he supports marriage equality, issues a Pride Month proclamation (“I call upon the LGBT community, the Congress, and the American people to work together to promote equal rights for all, regardless of sexual orientation or gender identity”), and the Pentagon holds a Pride event! And that’s just for starters!
- HEALTH CARE REFORM ACHIEVED WHERE EVERY PRESIDENT SINCE TRUMAN HAS FAILED!
These things — these three things — are nation changing. Our children and grandchildren will learn about them and not understand why they still bring tears to our eyes, because they will take them for granted. They will not understand the words “pre-existing condition,” they will not understand why Uncle Joe’s wedding was such a big deal, and they will look at 200+ years of white, male Presidential portraits with smug derision.
And notably, the latter two items on my list are the direct result of the first.
I have said before, and will no doubt say again, that I do not always agree with this President and he has, on more than one occasion, disappointed me. But I can say that about everyone else, ever, in politics and in my life. Today, I genuinely don’t care.
This President has changed our country, and pretty significantly for the better.
Capital H History, baby. That’s where we live right now.
helensprogeny
/ June 28, 2012A-fucking-men. Also too: we have created the change we were waiting for, if in no way other than electing the dude. Yay, Obama and Yay, us!!