A reader writes:
I was over the moon last night, but I am startled at how depressed I feel today. I am sunburned from holding an Obama sign with other supporters at a street corner yesterday, and I spent the day before making calls at the Obama Oklahoma City campaign office. Kerry didn't even bother to have one, so it felt great not to be counted out. It felt nice to think that the "50 state strategy" actually did include Oklahoma.
I am so incredibly sad that my state voted even less (barely; 34 vs 35%) for Obama than for Kerry. I am also disgusted that Jim Roth lost his corporation commission seat, which can only have been because he is gay.
I feel left behind.
There are lots of us like me in Oklahoma. Apparently, 34% of my state is similar to me. It is hard not to feel alone with the results here, though.
When the dust settles, I would love it for there to be some sort of "Oklahoma Project." I don't see how we are going to get any bluer without outside help. Can't someone with money make us a social experiment?
I feel like I have to keep living the Bush years by virtue of living here, and yet I'm a 4th generation Oklahoman and I don't want to leave. I don't want to give over the place I love to the radical right. It's how we all felt about the United States for the last 8 years, but it has been that way for my entire life here in Oklahoma, and there is no end in sight, even though the rest of the country has moved on. Our state legislature became even more Republican last night, and the moderate Republicans, like Mickey Edwards, no longer live here.
We need help.
We, the "good guys" here in Oklahoma, feel like missionaries in a hostile world. It is hard not to want to give up. Please be thinking of us.
Thanks.
