If you saw my last diary, you know that I am in America right now, supporting my dad and handling the "estate" of my mother, which is composed 90% of papers and archives from all her civic involvement through the decades. But I am also taking some "time off" from cleaning and sorting to get involved, myself, in an election that is coming up in New York: the challenge from Zephyr Teachout to incumbent governor Andrew Cuomo in the Democratic primary on September 9.
Why? Because I think my mom would agree: sometimes you have to prioritize. Her archives will be here next month, but the chance to elect a true progressive as NY governor will come and go. Now is the time to act, because climate change is a real and growing threat now, and because money is strangling our democracy now. I'm also prioritizing this because next spring my husband and I are going to move back to Ithaca. We will be leaving a part of the world where the most conservative politicians and voters are still to the left of the US Democratic party. I get more than a little depressed when I think about what I'll be leaving behind, from single payer health care to 5 week paid summer vacations to the absence of Big Money in public elections and the absence of handguns on the street. I would be really happy if at least I was moving to a part of the US where someone was trying to do something. I know, I know, Cuomo brought same-sex marriage to NY, and of course a Republican governor would be worse... but I just can't get excited about moving to a NY that is still under Cuomo's leadership.
More below the squiggle (but, as someone pointed out in the comments last time, it's good to offer a donation link in the intro, so here it is: donate here.)