I woke up today with a heavy heart...
I try to write here about love and compassion and being a generally good person. Those are my life goals. I want to do the same today, but I'm struggling...
Our country elected a mysogynistic, racist bully to be president.
I am having to accept the fact that a great majority of people like me - whites living in middle America - decided they could live with Donald Trump. It is apparent that neither candidate was particularly likable. People went to the polls to vote against the other candidate. Clinton was a flawed candidate, for sure. But she's a woman who has spent 30 years in a man's world and she's still standing. I have respect for that.
My 15 year old daughter watched the election results with me last night. Someone help me answer her question - How do we elect a man who thinks it's OK for him to grab women by the pussy? That sexual assault is somehow a man's right? That we should laugh about boys being boys? In two years Erin will be living on her own on a college campus.
I have friends and family in the LGBTQ communities, some of whom were able to get married to their long-time loves. How do I reconcile that half of America thinks they don't deserve the same rights I do?
How do we help people of color feel safe in this new America? We went from the first ever black president to one endorsed by the leader of the KKK.
Trump riled people up with hateful rhetoric. People wore t-shirts that said "Trump That Bitch". He called her a "nasty woman". Women are on the margins now in this new America.
I understand wanting change, wanting to shake up the Washington elite. I understand fear about losing jobs and difficulty learning to accept people who don't look like us. Yes, our political system is wracked by gridlock and inefficiencies. There are places where we could make sweeping changes for the better.
What I don't understand giving a big middle finger to the progress this country has made on human rights. Women's rights. Gay rights. Minority rights. I'm sad that half of the country doesn't value these things. I don't expect everyone to think like me. But I do hope for human decency. The potential make-up of the Supreme Court has such huge implications when it comes to personal freedoms.
I'm not smart enough to understand how this will change trade and the world economy. But I do know how I feel today. I feel lonely. I feel defeated by a big, loud bully. I feel a little scared to share my opinion, because there are so many Americans who don't view the world through the same lens as me.
This morning, Donald Trump has said he will be a president for all Americans. His words and actions have hurt so many already.
I know love and compassion is the way forward. But today, I hurt.
