Anybody Having an Election Mood?

I finally went to bed at about 2 am. None the wiser to the future of our country, no better informed as to what to expect from my country, my city the following day. I’m used to knowing more on election night. Not just as the ballots and results roll in, but just in fucking general: I’m used to knowing more.

I didn’t feel that way at 2am. I felt, and have been feeling, something very different recently. For years. I know I’m not alone.

Let me step back a bit, 40 hours earlier. I watched Facebook status updates roll in. Each more apocalyptic than the next. I watched videos of dudes marching around with what were clearly not American flags, stomping proudly to make some statement that seemed a bit far removed from anything that had to do with Patriotism. I watched my favorite neighborhood store put plywood over it’s windows, carefully fitted and color blended to the paint around it. This was not a last-minute decision. This had been planned for some time. All of it has.

We are not celebrating our democracy, folks.

We’ve come to, let’s softly call it an “uncomfortable” spot in our growth as a country. We are young, America. Seems like we forget that. We’ve left some problems on the table that we never fully addressed. That’s alright, all families do this. And we are a family, begrudgingly and emphatically so.

Like any American household (at least mine) can attest to: If you don’t tackle the kitchen arguments in earnest the first time, the issue will come back. Probably worse. Our country is due for some serious conversations about how we treat and interact with one another. Again. And it never seems to start with calm and complete understanding, does it? It takes patience to endure your and everyone else’s rage so you can get to a point of dialogue. We are witnessing a national opportunity. The opportunity over the status quo; to move beyond the perception of an idealized past and embrace the possibilities of an achievable future. That thing. If we want it, of course.

So today, I’m prepared. Mentally. Mostly. Prepared for what the fallout might be, playing out worse case scenarios that I don’t have to share here…I’m positive that you have already thought of them. That’s what we do when we don’t “know”. We think of possible scenarios and results. This strange “mood” that hovers over this most bizarre election in a most bizarre time during a most bizarre year in our country’s young history…well, our standards should be higher than ever. I have that kind of hope. I expect my country, my Milwaukee, to help me know more.