Stairs
The way I have come to think about voting within the imperial core, and this is just me, is like the way I think about stairs.
Stairs are everywhere embedded in the very fabric of our infrastructure of this world. They’ve been used for a very long time and most people are used to using them. But not everyone can use them and not everyone wants to use them.
The destinations that stairs connect, because stairs are bridges of sorts connecting one place to another, can sometimes only be accessed by those stairs because the entire landscape and infrastructure were built around those stairs. There is no other way to get to the place currently other than through those stairs.
That means many people in the world can’t get to those destinations. Do I not go to some places because of stairs? Yes, because some of the people dearest and closest to me cannot come with me. Do I sometimes not want to take the stairs even when I’m by myself? Yes, I don’t, because life grinds at us. Or sometimes I have luggage, or a splinter in my foot, or sometimes the stairs are crumbling.
Sometimes people bound up stairs skipping steps, some people use them as exercise, sometimes people walk slowly, sometimes people can only use stairs with railing, and sometimes people use them to sit. There are many different ways to take the stairs, just as there are many different ways to vote. You can vote for different candidates, write in your own, or you can do what I did recently and vote uncommitted.
But even with all of that, still, some people can’t vote. Some people cannot take the stairs. Some people don’t want to. Stairs alone do not make the world accessible.
Sometimes where there are no stairs people have created their own paths. Worn from a single line of feet going back and forth. Because people will find a way even when no way was given.
Another factor to keep in mind is sometimes the destinations and locations that stairs lead to are not necessarily the destinations you want to get to anyway.
Stairs can be a great solution to access some places, but they can’t be the solution to access every place.
In the ableist oppressive world we are in, stairs are sometimes the only way to access some places.
For years and decades structures, buildings, and landmarks have been struggling to retrofit themselves (some will never get to it) with elevators, ramps, escalators, and stair lifts. But even all of those methods are built around the centering of stairs.
There are so many other ways to connect one place to another, but because this world has chosen stairs as the dominant method, everything centers around them. We have grown to normalize stairs as the primary method of getting to places and we even view some types of stairs as a status symbol.
An infrastructure centered around stairs will not make the world accessible. Is it the world that was built? Yes. Do we have to accept it? No.
Do we sometimes have to take the stairs to get to specific places? Currently unfortunately yes, which means that many get left behind. And remember, we don’t want that world. Liberation means EVERYONE.
I’ll leave you with this. For those who choose to take the stairs, it is our duty, task, and obligation to create methods for everyone to be able to access the destination together. Everyone. And those that decide not to take the stairs also should be building a different world, too.
Stairs are not the only way to get somewhere. They’re definitely not the way to get everyone there. And they are not even necessarily the best way to get somewhere. They are just one way out of many ways.
Be creative in your organizing and your communities and remember that liberation means it is accessible to everyone. And stairs, they are not.
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