A Time of Peace

I have a yearly tradition that I love to indulge in-Christmas cards. It is a practice of a bygone era. That being said, millions of Christmas cards are still sent through the mail every year. I use 2 sets of cards per year-one for friends and family, and the other for work colleagues. 

I have a ritual when it comes to my Christmas cards: 

-In July I go through my cards and decide which sets to use that year

-In November I fill out the cards and put them out to mail on Thanksgiving night

Of course, this ritual takes place during a normal year. Nothing has been normal this year. We're in the midst of a global pandemic, a civil rights crisis, and a contentious Presidential election. The world has turned upside down, and we're all clinging to whatever we can, hoping to weather the storm as best we can.

But this year, I could not make a decision about the Christmas cards. It's not a hard decision-you look through the Christmas cards you own, you pick a set of cards, make them out, address them, and mail them out. And I am the self-dubbed Queen of Christmas; I instantly know what I like and what I don’t. How hard can it be to pick out a set of Christmas cards? Yet for months I could not make a decision.

I finally had an epiphany on the Christmas cards:

"Make a decision on which cards to send when you find out who wins the election."

To many, that may be a ludicrous thought. Yet in times of such uncertainty, when none of us were sure the direction in which the United States was going, it was the only way I could make sense of the matter. Only then, I felt, would I know the mood of the nation, and what therefore instinctively know what cards to send.

 

Before the election, it was anyone's guess who would win. If the current "President" were to lose, how would his supporters react? In the first year of his presidency, hate crimes rose 300%. This year, after the murder of George Floyd, hate crimes have risen exponentially. How do we put the lid back on Pandora's box? How do we find common ground and work together moving forward?

In the days leading up to the election, I began to pray for peace. I prayed for calm. I prayed for peace for myself, to calm my anxieties about the upcoming election. I prayed for peace for the United States, peace with one another. I prayed for peace to settle our hearts and minds, and for peace to lead us through the days and months ahead. 

That is when I had a final epiphany on my Christmas cards, on the decision of which cards to send. What message would I give to others? A message of peace. The Christmas cards I send out this year will be messages of peace.

As of this writing, it was confirmed today that former Vice-President Joe Biden has won the Presidency of the United States. His Vice President: Kamala Harris, Black American woman of Jamaican and Indian descent.

Now that the stars have aligned and President Biden has been voted the next U.S. President, we must take a little time to celebrate. It is quite a moment in history. This is the centennial year of the 19^th Amendment, which granted women the right to vote. Now a woman has been elected to and will serve in the White House. It is a watershed moment in this country, and is worthy of celebration.  However, this celebration should be brief, as we should get to work.

America has considerable work to do. It is a time to dismantle and demolish all that the current "President" has done. It is a time of energy and renewal and hope for the country, after 4 years of oppression and degradation.

Just think of the possibilities. Here are but a few examples. We can:

-release people in the detention facilities at the U.S. border

-locate the parents of over 500 children currently in detention facilities

-pay a second round of stimulus payments to all Americans

-help small businesses who need to make payroll for all employees

-help workers in the restaurant industry whose livelihood is disappearing in the pandemic

-help to support performers on Broadway, in Hollywood, all across America who are currently aren't working and are in need of aid

-ensure that every American has access to health care

-build green energy in this country, utilizing wind and solar energies

-provide every household in America with wireless internet for free

-build grocery stores in communities that are food deserts

-dismantle the cash bail payment system

-legalize marijuana and release non-violent prisoners in prisons

-eliminate the industry of for profit prisons

-destroy the school to prison pipeline

-redistribute budgetary allocations to communities and mental health resources so our police forces can concentrate on their jobs (also known as "defunding the police")

-pass the Equality Act, to give LGBTQ+ citizens the rights and protections that all other Americans have

-make Election Day a national holiday, which would give every American a day off work, ensuring everyone would have access to vote

-bring a balance of judges to the Supreme Court

-create a plan to stop the spread of Covid 19 and lessen the case count and the death count in this global pandemic

As an American woman, and as a queer American woman, I am pleased and relieved that Joe Biden and Kamala Harris were voted as the next Presidential administration for the United States. Change is right around the corner. Miraculous things can happen. We can create radical positive change, and it's ours for the making. 

Wonderful things are happening. This has the potential to be a golden age for the U.S. More importantly, it has the potential to be a time of peace.