Waking up this morning, I felt a sense of peace I hadn’t experienced in a while.
To finally have an end to the 2020 U.S. Election was a relief, but to have such a positive result was like nothing I can describe.
After checking several sites and channels to make sure the result was actually real, I sat back on the couch and watched the acceptance speeches from Joe Biden and Kamala Harris.
If I was a young girl of colour growing up in the States today, I would have a sense of empowerment, that I could be successful at anything I set out to achieve, that I was being heard, and my thoughts and opinions were valued.
The negativity, hatred and exclusion of recent years doesn’t wash away so easily. There is a lot of healing to be done. However there is a real sense that this can start now. Biden summed it up well in his speech today.
“It’s time to put away the harsh rhetoric, lower the temperature, see each other again, listen to each other again. And to make progress we have to stop treating our opponents as enemies,” Biden appealed to the crowd. “This is the time to heal in America.”
Joe Biden, U.S. President-Elect
We are global citizens
While baking a cake with my young nephew the other day (one of our favourite activities to do together) he asked me why I cared so much about the outcome of the U.S. Election. I told him that even though we don’t live in America, U.S. politics affects us in various ways – our trade, our economy, and our defence policy to name a few. We may be Australians by birth, but we are also global citizens. We do not want others to suffer, whether they live in our country or in other parts of the world we will never visit.
The past four years have shed light on a great deal of suffering through inequality and intolerance, the power of which has also extended beyond U.S. borders. Even Australia, ‘the lucky country’, has been encouraged to recognise where there are gaps in our own society that need to be bridged. I hope we maintain a sense of self-reflection and improvement.
No more doomscrolling #USElection2020. No more double-checking statistics, quotes, and actions to see if they were ‘real facts’. We can all finally take in a deep breath and exhale. It’s time to heal.
Twenty years from now, I’m certain I will remember this day.
