Optimism and Equal Rights

I went out and picked up some trash around the neighborhood earlier and I feel much better. It’s really wonderful to be able to make the world better just by stepping outside. It reminds me that pretty much every problem is very fixable, and that everyone who actually fixes them is just Some Guy (gender inclusive) who happens to be doing the work. It makes everything feel much more manageable to me, and that’s my speed of optimism: not a belief I can do everything alone, but a knowledge that there are things I can do, and that when we all do the little things we can, it all comes together to be enough.

That’s a good feeling to have, because there’s a lot of work being done in government right now that I think could be done better, and I’m very hopeful that I will be able to do it personally soon. It just seems to me that sometimes, when politicians squabble over our rights, they’re only fighting for half of us or less, but I know that when we fight for equality it’s important to make sure that we are not only arguing for the people who need those rights stereotypically, but for everyone. The best example I can think of at this moment is abortion rights. A lot of the conversation (rightly) focuses on whether or not women should have the right to get an abortion, but I believe that everyone should have the right to get an abortion whenever they need, for multiple reasons. First, because I don’t believe that which rights we give a person should be tied to our ability to identify them. And second, because we just know that if a law gets passed giving women specifically the right to an abortion, some butthead is going to sue over the first trans man who tries to get one because he’s not legally a woman, and it will have been entirely preventable by everyone who wrote those laws in a way that left people out.

But anyhow, I picked up trash today, so despite whatever is happening in Congress the world is a better place than it was before. I also have to be honest though and say I am no longer confident that we will qualify for the ballot. Almost everything that this campaign has done has been done in addition to me working a full-time job, often to the severe detriment of my ability to get a full night’s sleep. If you have one hour to help find a place for me to speak at in the towns on the list for next week and a person to be there asking questions and listening, it would mean the world to me. If you have one more friend who lives in or near the same town as a petition, please send them to it. I’m still excited to see how far we get.

And finally, I’m overjoyed to announce that on Monday evening, May 18th from 6-7:30pm my campaign will be hosting a candidate event at American Legion Post 35 on Broadway! I grew up in South Portland and it will be great to get to see some people I know in what I hope will be a very informative event all around. I can’t wait to see you there! (I can tell you for sure the City staff remember me – they finally sent me an email about that bench painting party today :))