GLASS-HALF FULL OR HALF EMPTY?

Two seemingly contradictory realities collided in my world recently. On the one hand, it seemed like the racists in attendance at the Republican National Convention really couldn’t control themselves. On the other hand, in two separate cases federal courts ruled that Texas couldn’t keep its exclusionary redistricting maps or voter ID laws.

Although some things get better, other things get worse, and some stay the same; I keep expecting the future to be magically “better” than the present, but I forget that we must shape the present to achieve the better future we dream of. Having grown up in 1990s California in the era of Proposition 187 and anti-immigrant fever, I though that being a decade past the year 2000 we would be doing better than purposefully excluding Latinos from the polls.

Luckily for all of us, the courts do seem to be working in this case, striking down these unjust laws in the name of equality. On the other hand, as a Latina it hurts me to know that my country is not living up to be all it can be. I know we can do better, I know this country and we can do better and we can be better to each other, so it hurts me to see us fail at it.

California already went through this period, and now Arizona is following in its footsteps.  I thought when Proposition 187 was found unconstitutional, we would move past it as a nation. Perhaps because we are imperfect creatures, we have not. Yet, despite the fact that we appear to be doing the same thing over and over again, I believe we can grow out of it.

For one thing, I believe this unfortunate behavior to be the last stand of a fading majority. If it’s the final tantrum of an unruly former majority, it’s easier for me to believe that it cannot last forever. But it’s more than that, deep down I feel that humanity is an evolving race, and even if we sometimes take two steps back for every step forward, it is progress nonetheless.

 

Copyright 2012 Sara Inés Calderón

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Sara Inés Calderón
sarainescalderon.com
@SaraChicaD
Skype: SaraChicaD

la vida es dura, pero es bella