Dear Neighbours To The South...

 

Hi!

Please let me begin with this.

I'm always flabbergasted by any election cycle in the States. 

It's no wonder their campaigns cost soooooo much money, they are endless.

They seem to begin campaigning with ads on tv and social media without end. As we get a fair amount of our television from the U.S, we get the same bombardment that is aimed at their voters. 

The ads are pretty messed up. It seems that there is no lie they aren't willing to tell, no fact that is left intact. It's like watching really bad fan fiction, the real stories being swallowed up by something unrecognizable and simply accepted. Weird.

I get that there is a lot at stake for them with this election. There is a good size faction trying to drag their country backward, and that, in and of itself, is baffling. The whole idea of stripping women of body autonomy, messing with pensions that people have been paying into for decades, wanting to revisit the legitimacy of same sex marriage, trying to deny the very existence of entire swaths of LBGTQ+ people. Pretending that the climate isn't changing.

The fact that there are those out there that think having a drag queen come to your library to read to kids is somehow, I don't know, detrimental to the kids is just so strange. People are willing to get your kids excited about books and reading. They are, by their very presence, letting these little ones know that living outside the box is not only accepted, but celebrated.

How is that bad? I don't get it.

Every child deserves to feel accepted, and some don't get that acceptance at home. They need it from somewhere.

Every adult should have the right to marry another adult. As long as it's consensual, adults can get married if they so choose. Any argument to the contrary is just stupid. Period. 

Every person has the right to dictate what happens to their own body. End of discussion. 

In a democracy, the ability to vote freely without intimidation, and have those votes count, I mean without both of those things, you don't have democracy at all. 

I'm not sure what the goal is for those who wish to turn back time. Turn it back to a time of oppression for so many. Moving forward is tough enough without the drag.

What's the goal? 

To shove people back into closets where they can drown in self-loathing?

To make people who were born in a gender that feels wrong, feel like they are 'wrong' again?

To make women have to ask a man's permission, or any permission, to take care of themselves? To determine their own path?

To, instead of fixing systemic racism, deny its existence, and encourage its expansion? Until what? Segregation becomes a thing... again?

So, dear neighbours to the South... vote.

If you are listening to the words coming out of some candidates' mouths, if you want to continue to make choices for yourselves, and your families, if you want your country to remain a democracy...vote.

Take care.

**************************************************************************

May you, a week from now, be someone we can recognize.

May this fall into the dark be interrupted, thwarted by the wise.