(cross-posted at Deny My Freedom and Daily Kos)
November 7, 2006.
It’s a date that has been on everyone’s minds since John Kerry conceded the presidential election on November 3, 2004. I have a wristband from Think Blue that I’ve worn every day since then. Two years ago, it was a dark time for our country: a president who didn’t deserve to be in office to begin with had been re-elected, and a congressional majority that had served as a rubber stamp got even bigger.
But you know why we fought on? Because we knew that tomorrow, regardless of what had happened yesterday and today, would always come.
And now it’s here. Tomorrow, we will be heard again.
All of us will at least vote tomorrow. But we have to do more than that. Our country owes an immeasurable amount for the grief, the rage, and the sorrow that this administration has caused, for its incompetence, for its treason. My generation – those of us coming of age now – are the ones who will pay the greatest price in the future for the actions of today. It is we who will have to shoulder the budget deficits that have doubled our national debt. It is we who will have to find some way to take care of our seniors because of the lack of funds for Social Security. It is we who will have to find some way to ensure all Americans can receive health care from a system that is broken beyond belief. It is we who will have to repair the image of America, bit by bit, so that it once again reflects the best our country has to offer – not the darkest demons of human nature.
So tomorrow, we will give it all. If you have work, skip it. If you have classes, skip them. Unless it is a matter of life or death, it is imperative that we do everything we can tomorrow to return America to itself.
Do it for those who died on September 11 because of this administration’s failure to heed intelligence warnings.
Do it for the men and women my age who have given their lives for a war that has no just cause.
Do it for those who died in Hurricane Katrina because of our government’s abject failure to prepare for it.
Do it for the veterans whose sacrifice our government has failed to honor by cutting their benefits.
Do it for the millions of diseased men, women, and children who are hanging in the balance because we cannot fund the science that could very well cure them.
Do it for the millions of families throughout America who go every waking moment hoping that nothing goes wrong because they can’t afford health insurance.
Do it for those who can’t live a better life because Congress won’t raise the minimum wage.
Do it for our senior citizens, who are being forced to pay much higher prices on their drugs due to Medicare ‘reform’.
Do it for the millions of Americans who face financial peril because of the bankruptcy bill.
Do it for those who can no longer seek true justice because of ‘tort reform’.
Do it for our planet, which is racing to the brink of destruction because of global warming.
Do it for the American worker, who has seen their job get shipped overseas, never to come back. Do it for them because our government refuses to pay them to get retrained in another occupation.
Do it for those who have been tortured by us, who have had their rights denied by us, because everyone is a human being and inherently has a set of inalienable rights.
Do it for all Americans, who now have to live in fear that their every waking move is being seen or heard or recorded.
Do it because the following people in our government have made our country worse off, less safe, and widely disdained: George W. Bush, Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, Colin Powell, Condoleeza Rice, John Ashcroft, Alberto Gonzales, Paul Wolfowitz, John Bolton, John Negroponte, Paul Bremer, George Tenet, Porter Goss, Michael Hayden, Tom Ridge, Michael Chertoff, Stephen Hadley, Richard Perle, Ari Fleischer, Scott McClelland, Tony Snow, John Roberts, Samuel Alito, and every single Republican member in Congress.
The list could go on, but the message is clear enough: America has had enough.
Tomorrow, we begin the long process of taking back our country. But it’s crucial that each and every one of us takes action.
Because one day, tomorrow may never come. And then it will be too late.