How we will move forward together

Dear reader,
I been shook
You been shook
All Kamala’s voters been shoo-ook.

I woke at 2am November 6
opened my cell phone and saw

Pennsylvania just fell.

My body lurched
as if I’d been shot.

I fell back on the bed.

You and me

Since then
I have heard that most of us
hit the ground
in much the same way.

Sad, sorrowful and in shock.

Some of us are mad and talking bad.

Some of us are still in rough shape.
Many of us are still grieving.

Looks like this is how it feels
to take a major electoral defeat.

Wow.
I was not prepared for this mighty blow.

But

But you and I have taken blows before.

We American freedom fighters.
are a tenacious lot.

We are tough and relentless.

We make good trouble.

And we never quit.

We ask ourselves

“Why would I allow a petty tyrant
—stoned out of his head
on his own megalomania—
to cause me to quit?

“Why would I ever give Trump
any lasting victory over me
and my freedom
…or over the freedom of our country?”

“Why would I play passive victim
to a sadistic bully
and surrender my power to him?”

We shall rise

Once we have rested up
and revived our spirits
we shall rise again.

You and I have work to do.

We are going to hold our country together
as we resist and deconstruct
all destructive elements
of Trump’s 2025 program

and continue to build
a far more healthy program
for ALL our fellow citizens.

We are going to unite our country
within a higher vision of freedom.

The promise of America

The promise of America
lives in each one of us.

We will KEEP our Republic alive and well
by keeping the faith

and by building the foundation of our Republic
even stronger than it ever was before.

Right now
we are going through the refiner’s fire.

We are learning all we can
from our experience of defeat.

We are seeking to reach a deeper understanding
of the perceptions and needs of our fellow Americans
who did not vote for us.

We are growing and changing
and we will come through more able to love them
than we were before.

We can now see how much pain and confusion
and misinformation has been sown in their lives.

We see that our fellow Americans
have been grievously misled and brainwashed.

We see how much our country needs
to be reunited in reliable truth
and in mutual trust and respect.

So when we say "God bless America"
we are asking God to bless ALL Americans,
not just US.

As President Biden just reminded us
in his great address to the nation:
"You can't love your neighbor
if you only love him when he agrees with you."

Let us go forth from this election
to love ALL our neighbors

Democrat or Republican
documented or not

because we are BIGGER than Trump.
We have generous hearts.

With eyes wide open
and hearts full of love

we will make real
the promise of America
for every one of us.

Blessings,

Dr. Hall

PS And speaking of generous hearts—
please see Kamala Harris speech below:

Let us go forth to live up to
the beautiful powerful eloquent words
Kamala Harris spoke to us all
at Howard University on November 6, 2024:

Good afternoon.
Good afternoon everyone, good afternoon.
Thank you all.
Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you.

So let me say,
and I love you back, and I love you back.

So let me say my heart is full today.

My heart is full today,
full of gratitude for the trust you have placed in me,
full of love for our country and full of resolve.

The outcome of this election is not what we wanted,
not what we fought for, not what we voted for,

but hear me when I say
the light of America’s promise will always burn bright,
as long as we never give up
and as long as we keep fighting.

To my beloved Doug and our family,
I love you so very much.

To President Biden and Dr. Biden,
thank you for your faith and support.

To Governor Walz and the Walz family,
I know your service to our nation will continue.

And to my extraordinary team,
to the volunteers who gave so much of themselves,
to the poll workers and the local election officials,
I thank you.
I thank you all. 

Look, I am so proud of the race we ran
and the way we ran it — and the way we ran it.

Over the 107 days of this campaign,
we have been intentional
about building community and building coalitions,

bringing people together
from every walk of life and background,
united by love of country,
with enthusiasm and joy in our fight for America’s future.

And we did it with the knowledge
that we all have so much more in common
than what separates us now.

I know folks are feeling and experiencing
a range of emotions right now.

I get it.

But we must accept the results of this election.

Earlier today, I spoke with President-elect Trump
and congratulated him on his victory.

I also told him that we will help him
and his team with their transition
and that we will engage in a peaceful transfer of power.

A fundamental principle of American democracy
is that when we lose an election,
we accept the results.

That principle as much as any other
distinguishes democracy from monarchy or tyranny,
and anyone who seeks the public trust must honor it.

At the same time in our nation,
we owe loyalty not to a president or a party,
but to the Constitution of the United States,

and loyalty to our conscience

and to our God.

My allegiance to all three
is why I am here to say,
while I concede this election,
I do not concede the fight that fuels this campaign,

the fight for freedom,
for opportunity,
for fairness and the dignity of all people,

a fight for the ideals at the heart of our nation,
the ideals that reflect America at our best.

That is a fight I will never give up.

I will never give up the fight
for a future where Americans can pursue
their dreams, ambitions and aspirations,

where the women of America
have the freedom to make decisions about their own body
and not have their government telling them what to do.

We will never give up the fight to protect
our schools and our streets
from gun violence.

And America,
we will never give up the fight
for our democracy,

for the rule of law,
for equal justice,

and for the sacred idea
that every one of us,
no matter who we are or where we start out,

has certain fundamental rights and freedoms
that must be respected and upheld.

And we will continue to wage this fight
in the voting booth,
in the courts and in the public square,

and we will also wage it in quieter ways,
in how we live our lives,

by treating one another with kindness and respect,
by looking in the face of a stranger
and seeing a neighbor,

by always using our strength to lift people up
to fight for the dignity that all people deserve.

The fight for our freedom will take hard work.
But like I always say, we like hard work,
hard work is good work.
Hard work can be joyful work.

And the fight for our country is always worth it.

It is always worth it. 

To the young people who are watching,
it is okay to feel sad and disappointed,
but please know it’s going to be okay.

On the campaign, I would often say,
when we fight, we win.

But here’s the thing, here’s the thing,
sometimes the fight takes a while.

That doesn’t mean we won’t win.
That doesn’t mean we won’t win.

The important thing is, don’t ever give up.
Don’t ever give up.

Don’t ever stop trying
to make the world a better place.

You have power.
You have power,

and don’t you ever listen
when anyone tells you something is impossible
because it has never been done before. 

You have the capacity
to do extraordinary good in the world.

And so to everyone who is watching,
do not despair.

This is not a time to throw up our hands.
This is a time to roll up our sleeves.

This is a time to organize,
to mobilize and to stay engaged

for the sake of freedom and justice
and the future that we all know we can build together.

Look, many of you know,
I started out as a prosecutor,

and throughout my career,
I saw people at some of the worst times in their lives,

people who had suffered great harm and great pain
and yet found within themselves,
the strength and the courage and the resolve

to take the stand,
to take a stand,

to fight for justice,
to fight for themselves,
to fight for others.

So let their courage be our inspiration.
Let their determination be our charge. 

And I’ll close with this.

There’s an adage
an historian once called a law of history,
true of every society across the ages.

The adage is:

only when it is dark enough
can you see the stars.

I know many people feel like
we are entering a dark time,

but for the benefit of us all,
I hope that is not the case.

But here’s the thing, America

if it is,

let us fill the sky with the light of a billion brilliant stars,

the light of optimism,
of faith,
of truth and service.

H-U !

[from Howard University’s motto Veritas et Utilitas,
which translates to
“Truth and Service!”

and to which the crowd responded:
“You know!” the school’s call and response.]

And may that work guide us,
even in the face of setbacks

toward the extraordinary promise
of the United States of America.

I thank you all.

May God bless you,
and may God bless the United States of America.

I thank you all.