The Mourning After

[Corey_Baker08]

I am unveiling this story I wrote for my 9th grade Composition class on the eve of the Inaguration of Bush. This is a realisitc account of how hard this election hit me. My teacher claimed it brought tears to her eyes to know a 15 year old cared so much about his country and its future direction....

The Mourning After

On November 3, 2004, assuming America had truly made its decision, we woke to a President returning to office as opposed to a newly elected one. To the victor goes a nation divided. A nation split over its place in the world, over its basic values, over its future direction. No matter who would have won, the uncivil war is likely to continue. After such a venomous campaign, will it be possible to pick up the pieces, bridge the gaps and reunite the United States? To restore trust- not only in our leaders but also in one another? The stakes were higher than we ever could have imagined.

I felt my heart sink as I saw Ohio fall. I was in disbelief and shock, and a state of personal mourning. After all, I had worked so hard and wanted so deeply for John Kerry to win this election. I sat back and reflected on why this election was so important to me and why I had such a sickening feeling in my stomach. No one really knows how terribly depressed I was the days following the election, yet I was not alone, 55 million other Americans were also in disbelief, but none wanted it as much as I did. The past four years of the Bush administration’s polices had taken such a devastating blow to my world that I could not stand to sit back and let this man be re-elected for another term. After all, what had he done for me, what had he done for my family or friends or even my community, the answer is nothing. He is the first President in seventy-five years to go a single term without creating a single job. Thanks to his reckless policies that give tax breaks to companies that ship our American jobs to cheap overseas labor markets, my parents are both now out of jobs sitting on the unemployment line, Thank you Mr. President. Thanks to his plan, Myself, along with 28 million other children in the United States are now without health care. I just wander if he ever sits back and thinks of how many lives he can screw up in a single day. Did it make him satisfied as he sat back and ignored the needs of working families while gave his gave his eighty-nine billion dollars in tax cuts to the top 1% of America that made over $200,000 a year. He turned his back on the middle class, yet on November 2, they failed to fight back. Thanks to his fiscal spending and reckless polices Christmas will not come at all this year to many families struggling to make ends meet, to put a roof over their kids head, and clothes on their backs, Merry Christmas from your President, George Dubya Bush.

Now as I sat back and watched what I would consider being the fall of a nation. I just wonder what I could have done differently. Wishing endlessly that I had done more. I was confident that Ohio would go for Kerry this year because Americans were ready for a fresh start. Thoughts of the rally that I attended in Dayton with John Kerry rushed through my head. I Remember being only inches away from the man I admired most in the world, I was optimistic that America's future was bright, and that our best days were yet to come. Now I sat in doubt about the very future of our country, wondering how the working class was going to survive another four years of his reckless polices. I remembered that same day in our schools mock election John Kerry losing by only 11 votes, Thinking of how split Americans were about this election. As the hours passed I lay in my bed trying to sleep but it was no use. Months of hardwork and dedication to this cause I cared so greatly for was now turned into useless memories.

As I woke the morning of November 3, 2004 I had the worst hangover of my life, election edition. I had spent many hours sitting up thinking of what had just happened. Going on minimum rest with a severe headache and discomfort in my heart, I did the hardest thing I could ever do, face the world in a time of defeat. I knew it would not be easy walking into that school, as everybody knew that just the day before I truly believed John Kerry was going to win Ohio and win this election. It was not a good day for me to say the least nor was it a good week or for that matter a good month. John Kerry conceded his race for Presidency that day and it was broadcast over TV in many classrooms in the school. Much to the delight of the preps and jocks and people that have never worked a day in their life, like it or not George W Bush was our President. As I watched John Kerry's concession speech that day, I remember, many things really touched me, one was when John Kerry said that he said, “I would not give up this fight if there was a chance that we would prevail. But it is now clear that even when all the provisional ballots are counted, which they will be, there won't be enough outstanding votes for us to be able to win Ohio. And therefore, we can not win this election”
also when he said ,"Now, more than ever, with our soldiers in harm's way, we must stand together and succeed in Iraq and win the war on terror. I will also do everything in my power to ensure that my party, a proud Democratic Party, stands true to our best hopes and ideals.”

So vaguely do I remember a "Four More years" chant that started in the hallway that day, with my emotions running high I attempted to ignore it and move on. It was not an easy thing to do but as I looked around and seen the joy in the faces of those participating in the chant. It didn't mean anything to me because the ones that where doing it had life handed to them, they had never worked a day and they probably never will. I realized that they are just as stupidly ignorant as the as the idiot they had just elected for a second term. Yet, as Sen. Kerry said, “In America it is vital that every vote count, and that every vote be counted. But the outcome should be decided by voters, not a protracted legal process.”


While the loss severely devastated me, I have learned from it. In order for our country to function properly we must all come together in a time of unity. But in an American election, there are no losers, because whether or not our candidates are successful, the next morning we all wake up as Americans. And that -- that is the greatest privilege and the most remarkable good fortune that can come to us on earth.
No one knows which George Bush will show up to take his inauguration on January 20, 2005. For the fate of our Nation it better be a uniter, not a divider. It better be a man that is willing to fight for our jobs just as hard as he did for his own. These next four years could be the best time in a world devastated by the on going threat of terrorism, or they could be the most divided four years our Nation has ever witnessed. As far as John Kerry goes, Just like you had mine, I will always have your back, and I will never Stop Fighting for what is Right....