Dear Oaty,
Yesterday, Kamala Harris conceded the race for President of the United States to Donald Trump. I have pulled some excerpts from her concession speech, which I list below.
...the light of America's promise will always burn bright as long as we never give up and as long as we keep fighting...
...we have been intentional about building community and building coalitions, bringing people together from every walk of life and background, united by love of country with enthusiasm and joy in our fight for America's future. And we did it with the knowledge that we all have so much more in common than what separates us...
...in our nation, we owe loyalty not to a president or a party, but to the Constitution of the United States, and loyalty to our conscience and to our God. My allegiance to all three is why I am here to say, while I concede this election, I do not concede the fight that fueled this campaign—the fight: the fight for freedom, for opportunity, for fairness, and the dignity of all people. A fight for the ideals at the heart of our nation, the ideals that reflect America at our best. That is a fight I will never give up...
...we will continue to wage this fight in the voting booth, in the courts and in the public square...
...we will also wage it in quieter ways: in how we live our lives by treating one another with kindness and respect, by looking in the face of a stranger and seeing a neighbor, by always using our strength to lift people up, to fight for the dignity that all people deserve...
...sometimes the fight takes a while. That doesn't mean we won't win... The important thing is don't ever give up.... Don't ever stop trying to make the world a better place... And don't you ever listen when anyone tells you something is impossible because it has never been done before...
You have the capacity to do extraordinary good in the world. And so to everyone who is watching, do not despair. This is not a time to throw up our hands. This is a time to roll up our sleeves. This is a time to organize, to mobilize, and to stay engaged for the sake of freedom and justice and the future that we all know we can build together...
https://time.com/7173617/kamala-harris-concession-speech-full-transcript/
I have to be honest with you. I never thought I would be disappointed in the loss of a candidate from the Democratic party. I spent most of my adult life thinking that the economic and social ideas of the Republican party were what was best for our country.
It was only after you shared your transgender identity with our family that I began the process of reevaluating my values and beliefs. This reevaluation was not just limited to the theological beliefs that I held from my upbringing as a Christian. It also meant looking at what our government is doing, in the name of the American people, both within our country and around the world.
I believe strongly in the right of every person to live a life as they choose. Some people may say that this is not what God intends for humanity. Some may say that our nation was built on Christian principals or that we are a Christian nation. I do not agree with this. I believe that if we try to impose our ideas on someone else, either through shame, coercion or legal practice, we are doing to them what not even God would do: taking away their free will. We do not have a right to do this.
Yesterday was pretty tough for you. I took the afternoon off and got you out of school. We went to lunch and then participated in one of your favorite activities: browsing Book-a-holic. You then spent a couple of hours doing that teen-social-media thing and had you were pretty upset again by dinner time so we spent a while talking about things after we ate. Mom and I affirmed to you our commitment to your health and safety. After dinner, you asked if I would email your math teacher and explain that you wouldn't have your homework done because you were so upset. This kind of crossed a line for me so I offered to sit with you while you worked on your homework and, once you got started, you were able to come out of your funk and get everything finished with some time left before bedtime to reconnect with your peeps.
I was so proud of you! If it were possible, I would have bottled whatever was going on inside of you at the time because this is how we are going to make it. We may be worried. We may be scared. We may be oppressed. But we are not defeated. A couple of verses to hold on to in times when we feel overwhelmed by the ways are the world can be found in Second Corinthians, chapter 4.
We are pressed on every side by troubles, but we are not crushed. We are perplexed, but not driven to despair. We are hunted down, but never abandoned by God. We get knocked down, but we are not destroyed. (2 Corinthians 4:8-9)
I look forward to walking through the coming days with you.
Love,
Dad