Thread by @ShelliWms

This is long…Just something I needed to say. I’d like to tell you about the REAL Texas:

I’ve spent the last 50 hrs watching election returns. I am happy that democracy prevailed in most places. But not here. I am happy that good, decent people who want the best for everyone 1/9

usually won out over authoritarian power-mongers. But not here. I am happy that Amer feel hopeful. But not here. Here we are behind a wall of voter-suppression and corruption and dangerous uncontrolled firearms and white men who want to control children and young people and 2/9

persons of color and transgender persons and women. Here we are fighting against book bans and limitations and moronic controls on broad and liberal education. Here we have more mass shootings than anywhere else because anyone can get a big-ass gun without a background check. 3/9

Here we are not guaranteed healthcare because we do not have the federally-expanded Medicaid. Here we cannot count on electric power because our separate grid has been sold to the highest bidder. Here women have no reproductive choice or reproductive care.4/9

Here we can’t mail in ballots unless we’re old and the voting places are limited. Here they are trying to choose who votes. Here they call elections and stop counting when the largest county is still voting. Americans have rights. But not here. 5/9

So, to those who are dismissing us while they celebrate inclusion, to those who are forgetting us while they celebrate freedom, to those who think every person in every state deserves what that state has wrought…6/9

remember that those of us in Texas, as hard as we’ve fought, DO NOT HAVE WHAT YOU DO. Democracy is coming back. But not here. Not all Americans are guaranteed rights and that needs to change. 7/9

I live in arguably the most ethnically diverse city in the United States. There are more than 100 languages spoken by students and teachers in Houston ISD. We are resilient and care about one another. 8/9

Most of us embrace diversity (and the fabulous feast of restaurants that comes with that). Most of us are Democrat or Independent. Most of us celebrate that democracy prevailed. But not here. 9/9 #TexasDems