#holdthefloor #enough #filibuster - that's what I did last night

I stayed up way too late last night watching the gun filibuster. Now I’m finishing my first draft of my science fiction novel, which has nothing to do with modern politics, but every now and again I go and look up #filibuster and #enough and #makeitstop and #holdthefloor.

I fully support the historical filibuster last night, truly truly I do. I couldn’t stop watching it.  This was a small, maybe barely effective, movement toward real action in a Congress dedicated to obstruction.

I felt a personal obligation as a citizen to stay up late and honor Sen. Murphy and support Sen. Booker and the two Republican Senators and the more than 40 Democratic senators who stayed and helped Sen. Murphy #Holdthefloor.

It was truly a wonderful, hopeful, 15-hour moment. A moment that says, even though the bills may be voted down, even though the NRA has far too powerful a hold on our government still, even though this Congress is known as the least-effective, most passive Congress ever, there is a glimmer, a spark, of fight in our Democratic senators which I hope will inspire senators and republicans on both sides to turn that glimmer and spark into a fire of real action and real change. I hope this is one step of many that will lead to a Congress that listens to its people and acts on its peoples’ wishes. Last night, like so many others on Social Media, I watched as people in our government fought for action and change. I watched as elected officials stood for 15 hours talking about real issues that impacted real lives without once going off topic or turning the #filibuster  into a farce of bedtime story reading. I watched as they succeeded in forcing the Senate to address two common sense bills that 90 percent of Americans want passed. Bills, that when passed, will begin a long, but necessary step, in eliminating the excessive gun violence our country experiences.

So this blog post isn’t funny or silly, and it doesn’t have pictures of my kids or trees. Just my relief that some elected officials stood up and said: No, we will not go through the same post-massacre ritual and ceremony and move on. No, we will not hold a moment of silence with complete inaction. No, we have had #enough. No, we will not yield; we will #holdthefloor. No, we will not let the lives of innocent people massacred at the hands of one well-armed man be dismissed so easily. Like so many other people watching on Social Media, I was reminded of what government is and how it works, and I was proud.

And now that I have that off my chest, I return to my science fiction writing.