I woke today, the last day of Christmas, epiphany, the day of recognition. The news from the Georgia election was the greatest; I posted on my personal Facebook that today was the best epiphany ever.
Well.
What a day.
Epiphany has many meanings. Someone can have a personal epiphany, realizing an important fact or feeling or event. A friend had an epiphany that she wanted to study nursing. This recognition/realization changes her life as she looks to enroll in college.
Epiphanies can be religious. We recognize the divinity of a baby (or all babies). Three wise men recognize the future leadership of a baby (or all babies). Epiphany is January 6th, the last day of Christmas, the day the Magi arrive at the manger where Mary cares for Jesus. In many cultures, today is the gifting day. Last night Befana flew in Italy, distributing gifts to the good keepers of Christmas. In Ireland, Epiphany was the Nollaig na mBan, Women's little Christmas. Women got together and children buy gifts for their moms and grannies. Pubs are all female on Epiphany to this day in Western Ireland. (A great tradition...)
Epiphanies are also political. Taking back the Senate seemed this morning to be the most fitting Epiphany gift.
And now. A bunch of Trump rioters took over the US Capital while Capital Hill police took selfies with them in the Rotunda, and DC riot police (not to mention MD and VA riot police) somehow took three hours to arrive and expel them. Having marched in DC - twice with a million other marchers - I can tell you that when the LGBT community or moms against guns show up in DC we are met with far more force. But still, the failed and ridiculous coup was an epiphany for many Americans, especially white Americans who have wobbled on Trump these past four years, wanting his followers' votes and not wanting to protest his support of fascists and KKK. A West Virginia state senator wrote that this lame coup was a disgrace on the day of Epiphany, Christ's revelation. I responded that the real epiphany is that Republicans are traitors. Yay me.
Yet walking tonight and enjoying the last evening of Christmas lights, I return to my own political epiphany. Two wonderful Democrats are now the elected Senators for Georgia, until recently one of the most segregated states in America, and one of the most historically activist states in suppressing minority voters. Today's election goes to Stacey Abrams and the organization Mijente, who spent years slowly building up a coalition to overcome Republican gerrymandering and voter suppression (remember those 10 hour lines back in November? those were no mistake, and are the real voter fraud of 2020).
You have to go back to 1980, though, to appreciate today. I and my first husband were active trying to push the DNC to address the active Republican suppression of Black voters throughout the US south. The National Democrats refused to do so, which helped oust Jimmy Carter and ushered in Ronald Reagan. Remember the 1980's pandemic? I watched my neighbors die of AIDS thanks to all the failures from that time.
Stacey Abrams, however, recognized the voter suppression in her home state, and her epiphany led her to overcoming election defeats and to build a network that fought the suppression that defeated her. Remember, Epiphanies can be personal, political, and religious. Abrams build Fair Fight Action in 2018, and two years later she delivered Georgia to the Democratic Party that abandoned her and all people of color forty years before. Watching tonight's Christmas lights, the senate elections feel pretty deeply faithful. It will be up to US activists to demand that Democrats live up to the gift they were given: we need an agenda that addresses all communities, especially communities of color, oppressed communities, and fighting communities. A bunch of camouflage dressed, middle aged idiots marching through the Capital can't stop us.
So. Epiphany. Revelation. What will tomorrow uncover and show us about our own lives, about our own powers, about faith and believing even when tomorrow seems unfathomable? Believing that epiphanies will come requires a lot of faith. I voted socialist in 1980; Abrams lost the governorship in 2018. Yet we must grab epiphany, grab revelation, grab recognition of our power to build again and again.
We are the real coup.
Merry Last Day of Christmas.
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