Now Is the Time When I Wish I Were Old Enough to Vote

We waited. There was nothing else to do. We watched the man with the smooth solid voice through the television screen and prayed that America wouldn’t disappoint us any more than it already had. We watched the votes tally and ceased to breathe.

There was a moment, just then, that the past four years flickered across my consciousness. I saw those buildings, our twin symbols, in all their flaming glory. I saw those bodies, in their desperate fall through the sky from 100 stories. Flecks of ash from the bonfire of our confidence. America relearned fear that day. She remembered what it’s like to be terrified and in her mindless panic, the retaliation was harsh. And he spearheaded her vengeance.

Even now we don’t know why he did it. Money, oil, terrorism, revenge, redemption… but he pulled the War card. And we gave him our Kings.

There were so many things to hate about him. His ignorance, his greed, his peculiar manner of offending anyone whom he didn’t agree with, or who didn’t agree with him. I never could pick just one. I had hoped, when he first took his seat in that oval office. I had hoped to be wrong. But my hope died with that declaration of war.

Today… today I had hope again. We watched the numbers climb and it was close. It was so close. But his numbers won. Four more years of not knowing what he would do to us. What new parts of us he would kill. What new hatred he would foster.

I cried for America. Wept for her awkward step backward. But the years would pass. There would be another time for hope.