Thank You, America!

By Martie Hevia | Blue Beach Song™

Thank You, America!

Thank you to the members of the Resistance. It’s been a long exhausting five years of Trump. As American citizens in a democratic republic, it is our patriotic duty to hold our elected leaders accountable and we did that.

Thank you to the Lincoln Project, Republicans Against Trump, Meidas Touch, and every person and group – liberal and conservative, Democrat or Republican, Independent and Indifferent – who went out and marched, educated, advocated, stood up, spoke out, took videos, made videos, sent postcards, called their Congress members, wrote articles, posted articles, requested mail-in-ballots, and braved a pandemic to make sure our votes counted because we couldn’t trust the United States Postal Service to deliver our ballots.

Thank you to Elizabeth Warren, Pete Buttigieg, Bernie Sanders, Amy Klobuchar, Eric Swalwell, Corey Booker, Andrew Yang, and all the other Democrats who ran for President and while doing so reminded us of what was possible.

Thank you to Nancy Pelosi, Adam Schiff, Elijah Cummings, John Lewis, Katie Porter, Alexandria Ocasio Cortez, Sheldon Whitehouse, Mazie Hiromo, Sherrod Brown, Chris Coons, and all the other members of Congress who relentlessly spoke truth to power, tried to hold Donald Trump accountable, and stayed in the fight.

Thank you to Republicans or conservatives like Justin Amash, Mitt Romney, Bill Kristol, Cindy McCain, Colin Powell, Michael Cohen, John Kasich, Jeff Flake, Mark Sanford, Joe Walsh, and others who, in their own way and in their own time, even if not always, put country above party and spoke out.

Thank you to all the whistleblowers and to those who testified before Congress to expose the truth of Donald Trump’s wrongdoings, risking life, liberty, and careers, people like former Intelligence Specialist Reality Winner, former Lt. Colonel Vindman, and former Ukraine Ambassador Marie Yovanovitch. You are all patriots and we owe you.

Thank you to Hillary Clinton who showed us how one gracefully loses and concedes an election, even when you know it was truly “a rigged election,” as the Senate Intelligence Committee investigated and confirmed that the Russians hacked into the election systems and the voter databases of all 50 states, in an effort to elect Donald Trump. She left it all on the field in 2016 and even though it was taken from her…and from us, we saw true grace and grit from this woman who should have been President of the United States. As a nation, we suffered for it.

And, finally, thank you to Joe Biden and Kamala Harris for showing the world who we are and making us proud! You have given us the first Vice President to reflect America’s diversity, and the first woman in that role. For little girls everywhere, that’s “a big f***ing deal,” to paraphrase our new president-elect Joe Biden.

I feel like I have been holding my breath for four years and I can finally take a deep breath again. I bet there are people around the world who share that feeling.

Now the work to rebuild begins. We need to make America safe again, kind again, and proud again. We need to lead with compassion and competence again. We need to stand up to the world’s despots, stand by our allies, and support our veterans again. We need to work toward impartial political, social and economic justice and rights for all people, regardless of class, race, ethnicity, religion, gender, or sexual orientation. We need to protect our environment and rebuild our infrastructure. We need to stand up for the truth and the press. And we need to fight for our voting rights by not allowing big dark money to decide who gets elected, or who gets appointed to the courts, or who gets to gerrymander local districts to disenfranchise the American voter.

There is a great deal of work ahead. But tonight we get to celebrate.

Congratulations to Joe and Kamala!

(And congratulations to all of us. We can get some good sleep tonight.)

Martie Hevia © 2020 | All Rights Reserved | Updated: 2020-11-07