The idea that we will have a president with whom I agree on the basic matters of how our society should function makes me almost giddy. Well, it would make me giddy if I didn’t feel so worn down and bruised by the endless campaign.
I will always defend Texas from Yankee scorn but at the same time, living blue among the red, atheist among the religious right, feminist among the whatever the hell anti-feminist women think they are—is wearing. I’ve spent so many years biting my tongue, trying not to argue belief systems (logic doesn’t work, that’s why they’re beliefs) and loving the sinners while hating the sins that I now suddenly find myself with the urge to call “bullshit” right and left.
The other day at lunch, a friend said she hated both candidates but that she was afraid of Obama because he’s a SOCIALIST and she didn’t want him taking her HARD EARNED MONEY and giving it to HOMELESS PEOPLE who JUST DON'T WANT TO WORK. I muttered something about the working poor and then summed it up by saying, “We have a philosophical difference,” and changed the subject. She’s a friend, after all. But my wussiness has bugged me ever since. My only consolation is that she had already voted so I didn’t actually miss an opportunity to convert an undecided.
Still, I’m starting to wonder if my decision, made long ago, to avoid making waves in my adopted home, is the right one. And I find myself increasingly unable to just keep my mouth shut at opinions that annoy me. In a way, Obama’s victory feels personally empowering, a validation of beliefs that I’ve had to keep my mouth closed on for so many years.
So, you know what I’m saying, don’t you? I’m about to be more annoying than ever.
And by the way, Yankee friends--Obama lost Texas but he won Dallas County. And that makes me happy.
9 comments:
Boy, do I feel your pain. I'm a native Dallasite who has never fit in. Liberal, feminist, non-believers who were born here are few and far between. But there are some of us. I bite my tongue more often than not because I'm just tired of arguing when I know it's for naught. But when I find another like-minded individual, I'm downright giddy, too!
Here's to President Obama. Boy, that felt good.
Try owning a business in which you interact with people everyday. I have no tongue left to bite. I fantasize about giving people my real opinions on their political/religious smalltalk but they don't want them. More importantly, it wouldn't change a thing in their thought process. Besides, people who you have contact with have already labeled you and put you in their tidy little files. Sophie, if you were to "come out" now, they would just write it off as some hormonal rant.
Huh, so maybe "hormonal rants" are just midlife women who are sick of biting their tongues to be feminine. It's like ... "Screw it, as long as I'm invisible, I might as well say what I want."
Go for it! You would only have my utmost admiration and respect. I never thought of it as a feminine issue. Wouldn't that be the same as a male saying the expected to appear masculine?
That's why y'all pretend to like football, isn't it?
No, actually up in these parts its hunting. Driving around town with your fresh kill dripping blood all over the back of your pickup truck, stopping to relive the hunt with anyone who will listen. I am on record as a non hunter and game eater. Got yer elk yet?
By the way, I happen to like football. Just not in the Friday Night Lights way y'all do down there.
I was considered to be too right by Calfornia's standards, and wayyyy too left by Texas standards. Does that mean I'm a moderate? I've never fit in. I almost snapped at a couple Obama-bashings friends yesterday, but didn't... figured it was pointless and wouldn't change my mind or theirs.
I spent half of tuesday at a polling location in Richardson campaigning for friend who was running for Congress. He didn't win but I spent most of the time talking with a few republican campaigners who were both polite and respectful of our differences. It was reassuring to know that not all political discourse has to be confrontational.
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