Today Is The Day!

Hey everyone! In case you didn’t know (but I’m sure all my intelligent, empathetic, engaged readers do know!) today is the last day to vote here in the U.S.! By the time you’re reading this, I hope you all have made your voice heard. Democracy is not a spectator sport and every single vote matters!

Join me and my mom while we visited Michigan State University’s Hidden Gardens last week

Four years ago, my little family of four, went to the polls together. It was both of my daughter’s first time voting. We wore white in honor of the women suffragettes as we voted for the first female president. Well, we all know how that ended up. What a devastating blow for progress and what a horrible night it was.

Hydrangeas are as pretty dried as fresh

After the election, I remember writing here, that we needed to love one another and heal our divisions with lots of mighty love (see that post here). I understood that people voted for Trump because they were sick of the same old politicians and wanted to shake things up and give an outsider a chance. I sympathized with people who had voted for him because they wanted a change.

The view from the top of a hill

Now, after 4 years, we know what kind of leader he turned out to be. I no longer have sympathy or understanding for people who will continue to vote for him after we now know what he represents and where he is taking our country. I won’t go into the list of why, because there are too many reasons, but we know what kind of human he actually is.

I know several of you will encourage me to be open-hearted and forgiving of my fellow Americans. Some will say we have more in common than we have in differences. People will tell me to forgive and forget.

A rural church just down a dirt road on my way home

But, I think that’s how we got here. Forgiving without anyone being held to account. Forgetting, so it all will just be smoothed over and go away. Too many issues have been swept under the rug and now the rug is a hard, lumpy lid on top of decades of deeds that have gone unpunished and uninvestigated.

Can these maples get any more beautiful?

I want to see accountability and improvements where they are needed and self-reflection of how we got here. This was not just one bad person. This is many people willing to bend and break laws for one bad person and un-democratic ideas. I want to see laws put into place so all the law-breaking cannot occur again. But, first I want those babies out of cages and back with their parents. That is non-negotiable.

Yes, this blog started out as fashion, but in this day and age, and with this once-in-a-lifetime election, I think it’s too important to not talk about current events. And if people don’t agree with me, they can stop reading this blog. This is too important for me to be quiet.

So, I hope you voted. I hope you got all the young people you know to vote. I hope you volunteered and I hope we all will be feeling optimistic and shed this yoke of despair in the next couple of days. Then, we only have the yoke of covid to carry.

Good luck to everyone watching TV and their computers closely and staying up late. I’m trying to prepare myself that it will probably be a couple of days before we know who is the winner, so I may go to bed at a reasonable time. But then, it may be too hard to sleep so I might be up refreshing my computer every couple of hours.

Well, someone just drove by my house with a Trump flag and saw my Biden sign and started honking obnoxiously. Wow. Good luck America.

Either way, time will march on and we’ll know the outcome eventually and then we can make plans and live our lives. Until then, everyone take care of yourselves!

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11 Comments

  1. Yes to all that you’ve written Julia. He is the culmination of things that have been going on for decades. I’m sad to see what our country has become. I’m usually an optimistic person but just can’t muster up any hope at the moment. We’ll see how the next few days go as I don’t think this will be finished by tonight either. Desperation has got me wearing all my good luck amulets today.

  2. I have not listened to news at all today. It is just too stressful. I’m going to bed ignorant and tomorrow morning will get up, and hopefully the man who thinks he’s king will be dethroned and we will have an actual president.

  3. I’m reading this on Wednesday. What can I say? I am so disappointed and disheartened to see how many people in this country apparently agree with the agenda of that evil thing in the White House. I agree with you 100%! Four years ago, people thought they were voting for a change. This year, they were voting to retain a misogynistic hate filled waste of skin. I am outraged, sad, and just plain overwhelmed. You have put into words what my brain has been trying to come up with. Thank you for the photos, the words, and the feeling I am not alone. I think we could possibly be soul sisters.

    1. I am happy to help in any way Marsha! Yes, I’m super-disappointed my fellow Americans looked around at a pandemic, economic uncertainty, babies in cages and said “I’ll take four more years”. I don’t get it but I feel the same way about people who don’t wear masks. I just don’t get what they’re thinking. I’m writing this Thursday evening and I am feeling optimistic right now. Hang in there!

  4. To be honest, I came here for the fashion but stayed for the thinking. You pretty much summed up what a lot of people have been struggling to say properly, and you did so beautifully.

    A lumpy rug as a lid on decades of bad deeds.

    Hang in there. Here comes the sun.

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