Politicium #2: This morning

{600 words, 3 minutes}

"Politicium" is a spontaneous, irregularly featured essay about a deadly and often delirium-inducing element present in society: politics. Seek immediate professional help if inhaled, consumed, or otherwise exposed. Your regularly scheduled programming will return shortly..

This morning, I wept.

I wept for my country, which in my albeit short life, I have never seen so divided against itself, so emotionally destructive in its rhetoric, and so disrespectful of its opposing side.

I wept for President Obama, who I now believe was too good to lead our country. It was a miracle to think that America could elect its first black president so soon after the riotous and strife-stricken years of the Civil Rights Movement. Now, it is clear, there is a terrible price to pay. America was not ready for a black president and I knew, although I did not want to admit, the idea of electing its first woman president following him was just as delusional. That moment at the DNC where I realized the first black and first woman presidents could be standing together on the same stage, what would have been one of the most powerful images of the century, was too good to be true. And now, President Obama must turnover his legacy to its veritable destroyer. We do not deserve Obama or Clinton; we have not progressed enough in our worth to justify them as our leaders.

I wept for Madam Secretary Clinton, because she worked so hard and represented the hope for so many women who have been waiting for her. I wept for centenarian women who were lucky enough to live long enough to vote for a woman for presidential candidate of a major party, but who will probably not live to see a woman president. I wept for all the young girls and women in America who have been marginalized because of their gender and have no guide to show them that what seems impossible is actually possible, because at least one woman has done it before.

I wept for the world, the democracies of the world, and the people of the world. Lady Liberty has been the mother of so many young democracies around the world, guiding by example and protecting them under sword and shield. And now, with their once nurturing parent no longer certain to provide, they are forced to mature before they are ready or perish in the chaos of war, of ruthless economics, and of climate change.

But most of all, I wept, here, alone in Norway, afflicted by a coldness that no amount of warmth can alleviate, for my friends and my dearly beloved compatriots of America. You are the beacon of hope, the people of opportunities and dreams, the people of courage and love. Your work is the lighthouse by which all ships see in the darkness. And now we see that the burden of leadership has inflicted a grievous and unresolved internal struggle, a rift that clouds our vision of a better future for all people, made by all people.

I still believe, because the tears have eroded my spirit down to the bedrock of my American faith, that America will prevail. It has faced darker times and greater challenges and prevailed. I believe it because even when it seems like America has given up on Americans, the reverse has never been true, no matter how grave our matters of state or our collective moral depravity. Because the idea of America includes everyone and everything, somewhere in that heap of humanity lies some kernel of hope, because it always exists and because it must exist.

But the cost of realizing that hope has always been an immense and disproportionate amount of human suffering, mightily borne only by those who seek it. And for all of that which lies ahead of us, I weep.