1. United States
2. Ore.
3. Letter

I didn’t vote for you. I thought you should know why. It’s not that I didn’t think you were qualified, or that I didn’t think you were capable to doing a wonderfully effective job. It’s because I knew that, despite capability, you would choose not to do so. I researched you, as any responsible voter would do, and every blurb, every quote, every overview was filled with just enough political non-speech to keep you reminiscent of the politically familiar to keep people comfortable, couched with just enough progressive buzzwords without pushing significant reform to appeal to the liberal vote. You wanted to be a politically viable placeholder that pretended to believe in something just enough to vote for, but lacked the conviction to do anything uncomfortable. Probably the wrong decade for that. While strange and unknown people run amuck throughout the state and throughout the city you pretend to take responsibility for, snatching and disappearing our communities, our families, our friends, our children… you look upon the people with conscience asking you for help with utter disdain. You refuse to meet with us, you lie about avenues to reach you, you lie about forums in which we may be heard, and then you, a public servant, have the audacity and arrogance to act offended when we find you in public spaces and insist that you answer our questions. We have been demanding action and accountability, that some of us knew would never come from you. But just because we knew that, doesn’t mean you didn’t place yourself in the position to own that expectation. While you run from uncomfortable conversations, we are screaming into the wee hours of the morning until our voices crack. We take canfulls of mace to the face. Our bodies are poisoned with clouds of gas and deteriorating from inside out. We are tackled by grown men playing dress-up in daddy’s fatigues, we are beaten, our bones are broken, our brains are bruised, literal pools of our blood are left on these streets for your morning news cycle. We don’t have to do it. We could stay home. We could sleep. We could go to our jobs, and pay our bills, and take our kids to soccer practice. We could eat regular meals, and watch TV, and read a book that has nothing to do with the world. We could breathe. But we don’t. Because pretending our world isn’t broken is a failure to every person we are connected to. We are many things, but failure is not one of them. So while you run and hide from uncomfortable words, we willingly sacrifice our minds and our bodies on the alter of community responsibility. We scream for the voices of our people being snuffed out daily before our eyes, before the eyes of an entire nation. James Baldwin told teachers that ALL the children of the world are OUR children and it is our responsibility to instruct them on the reality that the world is and in how to make a better one for themselves when we fail. They are ALL our children. They are ALL our neighbors. They are ALL our family. They are ALL our friends. And they are bleeding and dying at the hands of unknown agents. WE are bleeding and dying alongside them. While you hide. We always deserved better than you. But we’re willing to be proven wrong.