Only Love Can do That: A Note on America

Today is a day for hope. But today, I am nervous too. I am possibly disproportionately nervous about the US elections taking place today, given that I do not live in that country and its leader and their policies do not affect me directly. But it does affect me on a visceral level, you see. And I maintain it affects all of us.

We have been spectators at a horror show with the emergence of base ideals and ideas over the past four years. We have witnessed hurt, hate, reduction, ignorance and an inelegance of attitude so extreme that we are all offended by it, no matter where we live. Emotional abuse transcends borders, and that has been Donald Trump’s signature calling card.

His distasteful treatment of women, immigrants, black people, minorities, his staff, his experts, basically everyone not in his immediate circle (and then, I don’t imagine that’s a particularly safe zone either) has been deplorable. People have died on his presidential watch when they didn’t have to - because they weren’t cared for correctly by the one institution that is designed to protect them. And yet he still mocks and downplays the very virus that killed them.

And so, enough is enough.

I love elections. The concept and process of democracy is one so hopeful and high-minded that I find it joyful. Governments are placed to protect and serve their people - not the other way around (although you’d be forgiven for being confused on this of late), and it is the people who hold true power to vote in the change they want to see. Democracy deserves absolute respect from our leaders, as it is the very mechanism that holds the hope and will of the people. Trump, obviously, does not respect it, but let’s cut down the word count about him and his myriad failings, we’ve all had enough of his ignorant malevolence.

As I write this, early voting is at record levels and the polls are opening on the East Coast, with some standing in queues since 5 am there. When asked why he attended so early, a young man said, “because democracy is at stake”, and “it’s a life or death situation”.

And that is so exciting - democracy as a verb! Today is a day of historical action. And that is the very reason we all feel so nervous - because the stakes have never been higher. It is about life or death. It is about decency, empathy and elevated thought enacted through leadership. Or lack thereof.

But today is primarily a day of hope. A day to live through the words and ideas of better leaders, of people who came before, leaving a legacy of elegant rhetoric, and of people working hard to carve a better tomorrow. Of people working to make space for the young - for them to be free to rise up to take their places and have their voices heard.

Today is a day for America’s strength, belief and conviction to take form in action. The day of walking the walk. A day to recall the words of welcome, tolerance and light that are inscribed at the foot of the Statue of Liberty, no doubt intended as a national mantra...

“Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!”

Lately, it has often felt that events had taken an irreversible turn in the US, with division so developed that unity is unlikely anymore. But today, let’s hope for the American people - for their clarity of thought, for their belief in equality, for their understanding that there is a crack in front of them through which light can get. Swiftly followed by change. And grace.

Today is a day for Obama’s ‘audacity of hope’; a belief in a better way. A beacon of light to pierce the darkness. Martin Luther King said, “Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.”

Today is a day for love, so dear America, vote with hope. Shake the trees, raise your voices. Lift your lamp. We are watching and hoping…

Ellie Balfe, November 2020.