And Yes, the People Voted

 

And Yes, the People Voted

by Thelma T. Reyna

 

 E pluribus unum.  A little phrase, three words carved on U.S. coins, three modest words scattered throughout our history—recited, repeated, painted, engraved—onto things patriotic, in places representing us, on the Great Seal of the United States.

E pluribus unum.  “Out of many, one.” On November 3, in perhaps the most consequential midterm elections in our nation’s modern history, voters proved the spirit of this sentiment true.

 Yes, the people voted. Standing in radiant sun or cold climes, in lines deep and long, like ribbons silken and rich, tying a priceless gift together. Across America, ribbons stretching down city sidewalks, parking lots, parks, school lawns.  All places where people stand and lives converge.

 And the people stood stolid, or leaned on canes, or one another, or rested in wheelchairs.

 For hours sometimes, the people stood in ribbons,  civic legs strengthened through marathon months of protests in defense of our nation’s immigrants, against the suppuration of autocracy. The people marched shoulder-to-shoulder in Chicago, battled brutal ICE kidnappers in Minneapolis, condemned Alligator Alcatraz.

 And yes, until the end of day, on November 3, the people voted. Against tyranny, corruption, and inhumanity. Against party sometimes, but for only one outcome.

 “Out of many, one.”   

 Yes, indeed, the people voted.

 

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