I Voted Today!

It’s nine pm on election night in Jamaica and the governing party in Jamaica, The JLP has won by a landslide. I won’t comment on the parties specifically but I think this election will go down in history as a significant one. Our country is entering a new phase in our democracy and I’m not quite sure what to make of it. Voter turnout last I checked was around 30%. We are about to possibly have a very weak opposition and recent challenges with Covid 19 and the financial fallout means we have dangerous waters ahead. 

But it’s also clear to me that we’re entering an era where civic engagement and participation will be paramount. It’s always been important but now more than ever we will have to work to ensure our voices are heard, our needs are represented. Last week on Talk Up Radio we spoke about youth priorities and worked with young people to take inventory of the issues they care about, form positions to press for beyond the elections and to judge the political parties by their performance in regards of these particular issues. We asked them not to settle, but rather to demand more, to support more civil society and citizen led organizations making the change they want to see, and to think of how they can get involved in time, in thought, in kind or however else they can. 

This is still a big part of my focus going forward. I did a lot of research into civic engagement over the last year for my dissertation which focused on how young people connect with each other to address their own civic needs (voice, action, information etc.) creatively. One idea that I happened upon that continues to rattle in my brain is the concept of civic imagination. It really means imagining better futures and ways to get involved in building them. It means paying attention the pain points we live with — the things that hurt us, keep us from living safe, prosperous, fulfilling lives, the things that steal our joy and imagining what our ideal lives would be like. Even this is work, radical futures beyond current practicality have to be dreamt up in order to be worked towards. 

It’s something that should come natural to us. While reading Emergent Strategy by Adrienne Maree Brown, it occurred to me that Black Jamaicans have civic imagination in our bones. Before they could vote, our ancestors dreamed of freedom when it was utterly impossible. They found slavery and racism to be abhorrent in every way even when it was normal and they dreamt up ways to resist it. It’s important that we not accept the world as it’s presented to us, accept the systems we’ve inherited but rather dream of how they could work for us and read/talk with each other and do research so we can dream bigger and better.

It’s particularly important because our enemies dream. I know people don’t like to think about enemies but there are very real groups of people forming whole think tanks about how to better exploit poor people, keep women in subservience, keep Black people fighting for our lives, keep countries in the global south unstable or dependent etc. Here in Jamaica, it might be more difficult to figure out the enemies but they’re there, importing guns, investing in crime, influencing political affairs etc. We have to resist their influence and root them out, but we also have to out dream them.

What do I dream of? I dream of safe communities where we are not living in constant fear of losing our lives. Not safe gated communities, not uptown safety, not country safety, not safe for men, or people who have guns, but just safe. Everywhere. For everyone. A health system where I am not afraid to get sick because hospitals are underfunded and understaffed. The end of this massive disparity in education where so many students simply don’t get the attention or help they need. I want us to stand up for human rights globally and support Palestine, and oppose the handling of refugee crises. I want decent jobs. 

I want small things like community theater, sports clubs, after school centers, monthly townhall meetings where what we say actually makes it to the national agenda, and I want them supported by regular seminars providing people with information, guidance and support. I want backyard gardens and community gardens and farmers markets. I want to prevent homelessness and for children’s homes to be places where children who need state care can actually be fully cared for. I could go on and on. I want better nightlife so our music and creativity can be on display. I want regular water supply and good roads and better housing solutions etc. etc. etc. I want young people and old people to have better relationships, to share more wisdom and experience and innovation and vision back and forth so we grow stronger, together. 

I want it all, for all of us. But I know it’s not that simple. It will take so much work, and some of it is even impractical and silly and wouldn’t work but at least I’m clear on the world I want and the future I want. So I voted today. But I know it doesn’t end there. I already do some of this civic work with youth but I know I need to do more, read more and learn more. And I’m committed to getting better at doing what I do and maybe even trying some new things, like blogging everyday to build back a writing habit so I can write up a storm, using my creative gifts to do some good lol. Maybe spending more time deliberately doing the things that make me happy, like writing (doing good and being happy lol, perfect), or cats! Or the moon! Definitely gonna write about my cats or the moon soon. But for sure, I will be paying attention to the next four years, the six after to take us to 2030 and the decades after that. 

Rebel Women Lit - the most awesomest book club there ever was had some suggestions for how to do that. Check them out and their suggestions here: https://www.rebelwomenlit.com/blog/afterelections

And keep dreaming!