Editor’s note: On Sunday, Cleo Wade wrote a piece for W about how she gradually became politically active. “I grew up in Louisiana with a white mother and black father and, truthfully, I spent most of my teenage years feeling totally confused about anything political: race, reproductive rights, gay rights, gender equality, foreign policy, guns, etc.,” she explained in the essay, which you can read in full here. “I had no appetite for politics, and also didn’t think I mattered much… It was only as I got older and started working on myself spiritually that I began to really understand not only that my voice mattered but that I needed to make sure I was using it as an act of love and service.” Wade’s awakening brought her this election season door-to-door in states like Nevada, Pennsylvania, and North Carolina as an ambassador of Emily’s List, an organization that raises awareness for women in politics. Following the election, we asked Wade how she felt and this was her response.
An Open Letter to My Dearest America
Dear America,
You are The Beautiful
Not The Perfect
Not The Always Right
You are The Beautiful
Because
You are The People
We are not one
Because of
A single being
We are One
Because
We are in this Together
We are One
Because
We are who we are
We love who we love
And
Our neighbors are our neighbors
No matter
Their color, their body parts, or their God
We are One
Because
We organize
And we are One
Because we
Recognize
That the soil from which we come from is
A long and continuous road to
Liberty and Justice
For all
America,
You are The Beautiful
Because
We work at you
We exercise you
And
We evolve you
America,
You are The Beautiful
Not because you are always pretty
But because
Generation after generation
We recommit to
changing the spaces in you
where we find ugliness
America,
You are The Beautiful
Because
We watch over each other
We defend each other
We respect each other
And when
We are faced with the darkness of despair
We shine a light of action in our communities
My Dearest America,
You are The Beautiful
Because
When we do this
We do this with love
We always have
And
We always will
Sadness and Disappointment: Reactions at Hillary Clinton’s Election Night Party as Donald Trump Declared Victory
