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There is one thought that has kept me going since Tuesday night.
This is a setback, a bad one. This isn't the end. This country has struggled through many more terrible setbacks as it progressed towards justice over the last 150 years, but viewed across the decades, the progress has always continued. The Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 probably seemed like the end. Plessy v. Ferguson probably seemed like the end. The assassination of Martin Luther King and Bobby Kennedy probably seemed like the end. They were serious setbacks, but they weren't the end. We've kept going.
100 years ago, when women didn't have the vote, who could have imagined 14 female senators? 50 years ago, when lynching was ignored, who could have imagined Barack Obama? 25 years ago, who could have imagined openly gay celebrities, Congressmen, and federal judges, Gay Days at Disney World and gay adoption in 25 states?
50 years from now, this is going to be a bad memory, and we'll look back and say, it was a tough setback, but we made it through this one, too.
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