Some Thoughts on Voting on Election Day 2022

Image description: A screenshot of a measure from the 2022 Oregon midterm election. The measure centers around the Oregon State Constitution stating that slavery and involuntary servitude are prohibited - unless it’s considered punishment for a crime.

Here’s an example of why voting matters. The picture accompanying these words is a ballot measure rundown for the Oregon 2022 midterms. The highlighted measure in question is a measure called Measure 112. Measure 112 addresses a state constitutional matter. You see, the Oregon State Constitution was amended some years ago to remove most of the white supremacist racist language that was its foundation. Not all. Most. Most of the language was addressed via amendments. However, those amendments created loopholes in state constitutional law. And what is the loophole that Measure 112 addresses? Slavery and involuntary servitude are prohibited - unless it’s considered punishment for a crime.

You read that right.

I should’ve been surprised when I saw this on the ballot, but I wasn’t. Over the years, I’ve seen some of the horrific things removed from the Oregon State Constitution, leftovers from Oregon’s founding as a white utopia. What sits with me whenever I see these things is that we have to put removing racist laws from a state constitution to a freaking vote. This should be a given: abolish hateful laws without asking the public for their opinion. Yet we all know we couldn’t be further from a consensus on hate and history as a country if we tried. And you know some people will vote “no” on removing this hateful loophole. If enough people don’t vote “yes” to have this removed, how long do you think it’ll take before some cruel creature of a person or law enforcement in some small Oregon town weaponizes this loophole?

Why do we vote? We vote because we are nowhere near a point in U.S. history where our laws and human rights are intended to apply to all citizens.

[Image description: A screenshot of a measure from the 2022 Oregon midterm election. The measure centers around the Oregon State Constitution stating that slavery and involuntary servitude are prohibited - unless it’s considered punishment for a crime.]

This Week's Opening Thought: November 7, 2022

This week's opening thought, especially for those with power, privilege, and positionality in the United States: Vote.

Take the time to understand the measures and politicians in your area that could harm Global Majority and marginalized communities and vote against them.

If you haven't gleaned anything else from this country's past few election cycles, you have hopefully learned that your vote has legitimate weight. Making informed decisions that factor in human and environmental impact has weight. Voting not just for yourself and your best interests based on your class and socioeconomic status but as a voice for others who have been oppressed and harmed for centuries has weight.

I don't have any fancy slogans or stickers to motivate you to vote and care about your community and communities that are your friends, neighbors, and co-workers. I'm operating on the hope that you'll learn from history and respond accordingly, a hope full of swiss cheese-sized holes that I cling onto because the alternative is depressing. I'm expecting y'all to be decent citizens, to be the "good people" y'all claim to be. I'm hoping that some of y'all will live up to those "good white people" personas some of y'all gleefully tote around and vote outside of your ego and wants. I hope many of you will do better than using voting as a social media gold sticker participation award selfie. I hope you'll vote with empathy instead of for likes and retweets.

Hope.

There's that word again.

Hope is all many people in this country have left to hold on to. And some of y'all don't realize how your vote has eroded the hopes of so many.

I want to believe that people can be better than the images they show me daily. I need to think people can be better because, well, hope. Even with it in tatters, I wear it like a blanket against the elements.

I'm not the only one.

Vote like there will be no hope left to hold onto.

Because there might not be.

This Week's Opening Thought: October 31, 2022

Image description: A picture of Kool-Aid Man, a cartoonish human-sized pitcher of instant fruit punch with a stenciled-on smiley face, breaking through a wall. The words "Oh Yeah!" can be seen above him as the wall crumbles from the force.

This week's opening thought: if you see critiques of your industry from people, Global Majority folx, Black folx who work in your industry with ideas and solutions about how to repair these issues and the first thing that comes to mind is, "if you don't like [insert industry here] then you should get out?" Perhaps you're a part of the problem.

And please refrain from the whole "you're dividing our industry" jargon that people tend to trot out when they feel the need to defend their white supremacy ideology-driven professions. That's the response of someone who felt the words hit the nail on the head like a stake through the heart and don't want to sit with the discomfort of an honest evaluation.

If you've dedicated a part of your life to a career in an industry and you're not calling that industry to task for its lack of evolution and innovation or its lack of career progression and opportunities for marginalized, Black, Brown, and Indigenous folx, and Global Majority folx unless they prescribe to the throes of white supremacy?

You are drinking the Kool-Aid. It's not even good, Kool-Aid. It's Kool-Aid made with Sweet 'N Low. But you're comfortable conforming and toeing the line, so you're guzzling it like plants seeking water in the middle of a drought.

You might as well pour yourself another cup, continue sitting on the sidelines, and keep your opinion to yourself while the rest of us move our industries forward.

[Image description: A picture of Kool-Aid Man, a cartoonish human-sized pitcher of instant fruit punch with a stenciled-on smiley face, breaking through a wall. The words "Oh Yeah!" can be seen above him as the wall crumbles from the force.]