What We Lost, What We Won

( – promoted by buhdydharma )

We lost on HCR.  Plain and simple.  The only mistake is to think the bill couldn’t have been worse.  We could have co-ops and triggers, you know.

But I don’t really care.  Political loss is no stranger to the left here in the US of A.

This weekend, I will witness what we won, only one of the jewel treasures won for ALL Americans from the left.

People whose only wish is to become citizens of the United States of America will be gathering in Washington D.C. on March 21.

And their idea of the spirit of being American is not of Thomas Jefferson or George Washington, not of Anita Bryant or John Wayne or the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, Mr. Roberts.

Their inspiration is Harvey Milk and gay liberation.

It is now a fact that Harvey Milk was a great gay American, and the American story of the continuing fight for liberation by GLBT citizens is so firmly planted in our culture that immigration groups can use this American struggle as an inspiration that embodies the best and highest values of our society.

To me, that is a win.

From the Dream Act Portal:

March 15 marks the beginning of the United We Dream Network’s “National Coming Out of the Shadows Week.” This campaign draws inspiration from the struggle for equal rights by the gay and lesbian community. On the homepage of dreamactivist.org, the online hub for the United we Dream Network, the following quote from famed activist Harvey Milk is prominently displayed to encourage undocumented students to disclosure their status to advocate for equal rights and the passage of the Dream Act:

Brothers and Sisters, you must come out! come out to your parents, come out to your friends, if indeed they are your friends, come out to your neighbors, come out to your fellow workers. Once and for all, let’s break down the myth and destroy the lies and distortions. For your sake, for their sake. For the sake of all the youngsters who’ve been scared by the votes from Dade to Eugene. On the Statue of Liberty it says “Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to be free.” In the Declaration of Independence it is written, “All men are created equal and endowed with certain unalienable rights.” For Mr. Briggs and Mrs. Bryant and all the bigots out there, no matter how hard you try, you can never erase those words from the Declaration of Independence! No matter how hard you try you can never chip those words from the base of the Statue of Liberty! That is where America is!

Approximately 3.2 million undocumented immigrant children and young adults live in the shadows. It has been almost ten years since Congress promised them the American Dream. The wait has become increasingly insufferable.

What the forces of the status quo “win” is power based on force and not on what is right.

It won’t last long so they will have to fight each battle as though it were the first, the strategy of the short term, the power gain to gain more power.

What we have won is rooted deeply in our culture and will not be moved.

For us politics is a means to an end, and the means are as important as the ends and frankly there is no end at all because we will never be satisfied until every human being on earth, and the earth itself and all living creatures are free from injustice and tyranny.  So the journey is both the means and the end.

We lose and we win.

In the culture wars, we have won.  It’s not the jingoistic right wing that oppressed people turn to for inspiration to fight for freedom.  What represents the best of America to them are those folks who one day got fed up and stood up for themselves in the face of brutal authority, at a place in New York’s West Village called Stonewall.  And it’s a place on Castro Street in San Francisco where one man took on the mantle of power to truly represent those who had bestowed that power upon him.

One day we will again have folks who represent the people who empowered them.  Until then, we journey on and we will not be moved.