don't fall asleep

While the title sounds like a great (or awful--in the genre, they are the same) horror movie, this is actually referring to the way so many people woke up and took part in the very recent choosing of our President-elect.

I have no intention of demonizing the newly elected and soon to take office president.

I do think that the people in this country usually don't wake up very much---focusing instead on their own day to day lives except to make a 5 minute decision on whether to go vote for their party's candidate or just depend on their neighbors to make the same decision they would.  In my state, where there is about a 60/40 split between  the registered party members, the 40% could vote for Pat Paulsen--even though he has been gone for 20 years, and it would not change the result.

This past two years woke a lot of people up.  We had not seen that kind of activism and participation since the 1960's. We polarized--not just college kids against the establishment but in families, among coworkers,  heating up marriages, stirring up kindergarteners in public schools-----even in political parties.  It was nothing if not extreme.  (In truth, we are not really past that)
While the fear and anger needs to calm down and be soothed, I really don't think  we have accomplished our goals yet.

It's not yet time to go back to sleep. ( it probably never was and never will be--this is our country, our home we are talking about)

It is time to regroup.  It's time to re-examine what is important for our futures--ALL our futures; take a deep breath so we don't let go with a knee-jerk reaction and decide,  really decide---what still needs fixed, what is important to us all.

This past 2 years were uncomfortable for a lot of people because we all like to think that we all have the same worries and concerns.  Sort of like at work, when 3 people start talking about the latest episode of survivor and try to invite the 4th person into the conversation, only to discover they don't have a cable TV or a television at all, they just listen to radio.  Those 3 will not question why they are watching survivor every week and talking about it like it is important and universal, but #4 just became a three-eyed monster--might be a serial killer or maybe a spy--but definitely not normal.  We are rarely a people seeking insight about ourselves.  We like to be a part of the majority--in a nation ruled by the majority.

So who is the Majority in this country? ( The Population Census, April 1, 2010  321,418,820)

 https://www.census.gov/quickfacts/table/PST045215/00

So, we are about 62% white, and 50.8% female so white men make up  32% of the population.
No other single race exceeds 18% by itself but that makes 38% of the population "minority".  Add women, that strange majority with most of their power determined by their spouse and you have a country of minorities.  A country ruled by a small group because the rest are splintered and separated, and feed on hate and distrust and fear.

Thirteen percent of our population is foreign-born--and that includes all races and language groups and both sexes (so some of those people are in the  32% nonhispanic white male group.

About 21% of our population speak a language other than English at home.  And, we have never been a nation with everyone speaking English at home, ask the Choctaw or the Californians whose families were there before statehood or those folks in the swamps of Louisiana.

At least 86% of us have completed high school and  30%  of those have a college degree or two.

Over 3% of the total population in the US consider themselves part of the LGBT community.

Thirty-three percent of black men go to prison, and in 12 states they can never vote again.  

Does any of that matter--yes, and no.

Once again we have a winner of the popular vote that is different than the winner of the electoral vote and thus the new President-Elect.

Until 1824, there is no record of popular vote numbers available.  That year, John Quincy Adams won the election against Andrew Jackson despite having fewer popular votes AND fewer electoral votes.  Congress made that decision.  The people voting didn't know what was best or right or who should win so congress fixed it. Four years later Jackson won an overwhelming victory.  Which of the 2 did a better job as president is debatable--but nothing amazingly good happened under either.

http://civilliberty.about.com/od/historyprofiles/tp/Worst-Presidents-Ever.htm

The other 3 times, (besides the one that just occurred),  Rutherford Hayes (whose Presidency ended the reconstruction of the South and welcomed in a legalized segregation for the newly freed men), Benjamin Harrison(blamed for a big depression--who knows what really caused it, or if they were right), and George W. Bush (too recent to discuss--but I like him better now that he has taken up painting).

There are a lot of explanations for why the Electoral College is both more equitable and less risky than the popular vote.  I think, that if the people screw up that bad with their vote, they would take it better than if a bunch of highers-up make the vote for them.  We need to either be involved or call it what it is, a republic with citizens and regular people (that is what ancient Greece was, they were good with it until it fell.  Elite groups lording it over large groups of workers and service people doesn't go over well for long).

But, while the presidential election is over, the governing of our nation is not over.  The problems are not fixed.  We can all keep working on those problems.  We can keep the problems in the light for all to see.  We can take advantage of a new ability to communicate rapidly and openly over vast distances so that if something wrong happens, hundreds of people will know about it within minutes and it will not be easy to put those genies back in their bottles.

We need to keep things transparent.  We need to shine lights into those unfair practices that hurt people from one group while doing nothing harmful to people from another group.   We need to be our best selves--using our empathy and caring, not just for the neighbors in our proximity but for those we have traditionally seen as "other" or "not like us".

We will never fix the problems in places with poverty and poor opportunity by screaming "act like us" when they have never had the experiences of "Us".  We need to talk to people that are not like we are, that grew up in other places, with other experiences if we would understand how an intelligent and talented person could become a criminal or organized crime member or drug addict.  We treat all that as if no one in our group ever did those things, then make a million excuses for our own sister or cousin or uncle as to why they did exactly those things.

There is a lot of ugliness in the world.  It is not all in other countries.  It is not all in other states or other neighborhoods or even in other families.  We just avoid dealing with it.  It is easier to see systemic problems as the fault of each individual that fell into that trap.

So stay awake, look at the ugliness, not with hate or despair but like a problem-solver or detective.  We can fix these problems in our country and our world---one at a time.   The first step with each is to see who benefits from keeping that problem.  Eliminate the pay-off for keeping the problem and you can find a solution more easily. 

But not asleep,  we can't do it asleep.

We can start by finding ways to improve:

the election process--get rid of Citizen United and lobbying for corporate favors.

the justice system--the public defenders office needs to be able to pay its lawyers as well as the private and wealthy, currently the system is nothing more than making deals for poor people that may or may not be guilty.  Truth needs to be the basis, not winning and money.

the health care of everyone--we have the highest paid Doctors in the world and more people with no access to preventative healthcare than all but the most debauched places on earth.  (good grief, Rwanda has universal healthcare, what is with us and our need to make healthcare a luxury item)

the income inequality in this country has created 2 very separate nations living together, like parellel but very different universes, a group that wants to put spikes in concrete so they won't have to see homeless people sleeping near their walks downtown and a group that prays they don't lose any fingers or toes tonight if the temperature dips.

the policing of our people has become focused and militarized.  It is not about protect and serve, but about us versus them.  Poor people have no one to call if they need help, they are more scared of the authorities than the criminals because they know their rights are not going to keep them from getting "stopped and frisked" for looking nonwhite or poor.

the education system--lets face it, rich children do not attend public school.  The public system is not to offer opportunity but to provide basic minimum wage workers.  About 40% of public high school graduates go a 4 year college after graduating as compared to 64% of private schools--which includes both private religious and the more prestigious preparatory schools.

the availability of jobs is blamed for vast amounts of poverty, but why do we have jobs that will not pull someone out of poverty.  If a job is important enough to be done, it should pay enough to keep someone from needing government assistance.  If it is not that important, why have anyone do it at all.  The minimum wage should always be equal to more than poverty level income for a 40 hour week.  Less is just someone wanting to make a profit off someone without sharing it with the person whose time they are using.

the infrastructure is badly in need of attention.  I see holes above me where I can see sky when I drive under an overpass.  We are building tourist attractions (we want those out-of-towners money) when we need to fix what will eventually kill someone.

the sustainability of our energy sources,  I live in a state that is still trying to call itself the Oil capital of the world--had we used the time since the first oil shortage to change sources we would be a place with money and options but instead we are dying of our own need to stay in the past.  Our houses are shaking daily from the fracking waste water, oil prices are so low that no one is making a profit and we just keep trying to build more pipelines and drill more wells.  We are as silly as the coal miners griping about losing coal mining jobs while burying their relatives with black lung disease long before they should.

So, it's time for more coffee.  Keep that brain alert and stay engaged.

There is more to do than elect a president.