† Criminal InJustice is a weekly series devoted to taking action against inequities in the U.S. criminal justice system. Nancy A. Heitzeg, Professor of Sociology and Race/Ethnicity, is the Editor of CI. Criminal Injustice is published every Wednesday at 6 pm.

Editors note: Next week we will be back on task -discussing the always on-going work of dismantling the PIC, made more possible now, by yesterday’s result. Today , we will celebrate the larger Victory!

We asked here for breathing room and yes we received it — many thanks to the millions who braved long lines, resisted efforts at voter suppression, defied the billions in dark money.

Yes You Did!

Thank you to OFA for creating the most relentlessly people-powered machine in the history of politics — you made it possible for us to get it done. Thanks also to President Bill Clinton and 538 Nate for #Arithmetic,  for keeping it real. And of course much love and so many thanks to Give “Em Hell Harry Reid – he told the truth and shamed the devil while his  Nevada operation put the state out of reach before the polls even opened on Tuesday.

More breathing room.

A special thank you too to Seeta Persaud for this inspiring space and to Kay Whitlock for her steady call to the bolder vision. I am indebted.

Thanks to all of you who regularly read CI and to those whose tireless work for justice is sometimes featured here. You know who you are..

There is always so much work to do and yes we will do it. Today, just a reminder of what we have achieved, in the form a piece i wrote last September, willing it all to be so. And it was.. Of course. much more happened between then and now — forces of nature, more enemy obfuscation, but the central theme holds nonetheless.

We were Called and We Delivered..

More Power to Us.

We Have Made The Choice
by nancy a heitzeg

(originally published 9/24/2012)

But when all is said and done, when you pick up that ballot to vote, you will face the clearest choice of any time in a generation… And on every issue, the choice you face won’t be just between two candidates or two parties.

It will be a choice between two different paths for America.

A choice between two fundamentally different visions for the future.

~ President Barrack Obama, DNC 2012

On November 6, 2012, we will turn out in record numbers to re-elect Barrack Hussein Obama as President of the United States.

If we are strong and clear enough in our vision and our numbers, we will return the Senate to the care of that Old Pugilist and the gavel to The Woman who wields it so wisely.

Because there is work to be done. Because we are citizens, not corporations.

Because the Truth has finally outshone the Lie.

This is not to say that we will take anything for granted or under-estimate the malevolence of the opposition.

Never.

There will be the tried and once true efforts at voter suppression, legal and otherwise.

There will be the untold $$$ flooding the airwaves with distorted negativity; the hand-wringing of pundits whose paychecks ride on a horse -race, the news cycles that may be dominated by debates, job reports, unemployment rates and assorted unrest – some real, some manufactured, some here, some afar.

There will the minutia of endless poll watching and the false hopes of some last great white gasp from the fantasy of hidden Bradley effects or the Hail Marys of secret call lists.

None of it will matter.

They will be defeated. They already are.

On November 6, we will make official what the universe already knows –

The Age of Enmity is Over.

As citizens, we understand that America is not about what can be done for us. It’s about what can be done by us, together, through the hard and frustrating but necessary work of self-government…

So you see, the election four years ago wasn’t about me.

It was about you. My fellow citizens, you were the change.

~ President Barrack Obama, DNC 2012

Historians will someday wonder about the events that turned the tide.

Some will point to the errors of the opposition. And surely, there were many.

The too visible, too virulent, racism and misogyny of the far right. The bullying. The outright admission that the Election could simply be sold to the highest bidder.

The Entitled Animal Abusing Opportunist at the top of the ticket who, with his less than charming wife, holds nothing but contempt for half of the American public, who uses pain, death and destruction as “political ” ploys. The Arrogant Ayn Rand Upstart who thought he could get away with telling nothing but the Biggest Lies.

The Disheveled Old Man ranting at an Empty Chair.

Yes.

But the Choice is not just rooted in rejection, it is the embrace of a bolder vision. A vision articulated by a regenerated Democratic Party who, with witness, authenticity and arithmetic, now clearly states the case.

Barrack Obama has always called us to that vision. It is at the core of who he is, who he always has been, who he has always said he was — a community organizer whose circle just expanded from a neighborhood to a nation. He wanted to be President — still wants to be President – because the better America still must rise.

And despite the doubters, History will write that Barrack Obama was a master of the long game and played a crucible role in turning that page.

He reminded us of Hope and the optimism of uncertainty. Helped us rewrite the books on what was possible. Redefined what it meant to be an “iconic” Black American, a story no longer tethered to some pinched white allusions to athletes/entertainers nor to the tragic sacrifice of the Reverend Martin Luther King Jr.

Barrack Obama not only made it over the mountain top – he will have his face metaphorically carved on it. He will live long and prosper.

History will mark him not as just the First Black President, but one of the Greatest Presidents of All Time.

Period. No qualifiers.

And, so it now is possible for all those –once at the margins — to stand proudly in the center.

Barrack Obama calls us — supporters and cynics, allies and self-appointed enemies — to make the America Dream real. He calls us to the long hard work of civic engagement, community, and a politics where we the people are participants not passive observers.

Barrack Obama has opened the door and we are going through it, a rushing rainbow torrent that can no longer be stopped.

Yes, our path is harder, but it leads to a better place. Yes our road is longer, but we travel it together.

We don’t turn back. We leave no one behind.

We pull each other up.

~ President Barrack Obama, DNC 2012

We did everything we needed to.

We were not distracted by the blatant lies and obfuscation.

We were not  lulled into the complacency of over-confidence or suppressed into the despair of not voting at all.

We  re-doubled our commitment — we  called, we canvassed, we registered new voters, we  GOTV’ed.

We were not be deterred by “poll watchers” or new jim crow suppression efforts.

We Voted.

And Our Votes were (mostly) Counted.

We did all this – and soon more! – with hard hope and faith and love. Secure in the knowledge that we are on the cusp of that long moral arc, and are finally, bending much closer to justice.

Yes.

We have Chosen..

And We are going Forward.

(22)