DREAM Act Portal Forum - To all of us feeling down...

I read this over at citizenorange.com today. Hope it helps someone.

Quote:

Everywhere I look mainstream media who up until this point as all but ignored the migrant youth movement is writing headlines like "DREAM Act Defeated", "DREAM Act Fails", or "DREAM Act Dies." The DREAM Act did not fail, the U.S. Senate failed the DREAM Act. Only in very recent times has a passing vote of 216-198 in the U.S. House and a vote of 55-41 in the U.S. Senate meant failure. I'm not going to get sidetracked into a diatribe about filibuster abuse in the U.S. Senate, right now. I just wanted to tell everyone who feels the same emptiness in their stomach that I do, right now, that you didn't fail, the broken procedures of the U.S. Senate failed you.

At the same time, for those of us that are committed to real business of making change in this world, we know that we're not dealing with the world as we'd like it to be, but with the world as it is. In the world as it is, we needed 60 votes out of 100 in the undemocratic U.S. Senate in order to emancipate of hundreds of thousands of young undocumented Americans. We all knew we needed 60 votes, and we didn't get them. There will be plenty of time to analyze why we didn't get those 60 votes, but right now I just wanted to lay out some steps I think those of us in the movement should be taking. I say all of the following first acknowledging my own 24-year-old inexperience and shortcomings in these matters.
The first thing I wanted to say to everyone, particularly to my undocumented herman@s, is take care of yourself. Whether you're an organizer that has been doing this for years, or someone still in the shadows that has been watching this whole thing unfold from the sidelines, take whatever steps necessary in the coming days, weeks, or even months, to get your body, your mind, and your spirit back on track to be in the best place that it can possibly be. Don't run away from or ignore the pain, anger, or even hopelessness you're feeling right now. Acknowledge it, even harness it, and do what you need to do to get back to a healthy place.

For the many of you that just don't have the means at your disposal to get back to a healthy place please do the hard thing and reach out to other people in the movement and ask for help. I say that knowing how hard it is to reach out, especially when you're not in the right place, but I can also tell you how amazing it feels when you do reach out and find out there are people in this movement who will be there for you. I have to specifically mention, here, anyone who's allowing thoughts of suicide to enter their minds. I don't think there are adequate words for anyone in that situation. All I can do is plead with all of my heart that you reach out and feel just how valued you are to others in this world and to God. I also ask everyone in this movement to be vigilant and make sure those around you are doing well.

Read the rest of Kyle Deb's message:

HTML Code:

http://www.citizenorange.com/orange/2010/12/the-dream-will-never-die-senat.html#more