I can’t continue my Canada posts at the moment. I keep telling myself to plow forward, just fight but I can’t shake my mood for the past few days. This is the first time ever I have felt I don’t belong in my country. Today is the 5th day after the election and the GOP/Trump have not condemned the spike in hate crimes. My Dad use to tell me stories of America the great, the melting pot, no other country was like ours. How we are the American melting pot because we are mixed, how everyone from everywhere came over for their dreams, how his family came over to build the railroads in the 1800s we, should be proud, there’s a place for everyone. Them not condemning the violence pretty much shows me they only value the whites and fuels the violence even more. Where is the America I was proud to be a part of? He will never be my president. I will never stand behind a government that does not speak out against the rise in hate that their campaign created, making it okay to harass people of color, LGBTQ, etc. As far as I’m concerned the government elect turned their backs on us. It’s the strangest feeling to go your whole life feeling more American than anything else to see you don’t matter because of the color of your skin.
Since things are going to be this way for a while, we need to fight back. Go out and protest, donate to the ACLU, NAACP, Planned Parenthood, NRDC. We worked too hard to have our rights taken away. We will fight, we will persevere. Remember, keep the protests peaceful, we have to be the better person. We can’t allow them to Make America Trash Again.
Jebus Mews & Andrea 
I had a good friend years ago who told me at every AA meeting he attended they repeated “You have to hit bottom before you can rise up.” Now the whole world knows the true face of things and while it’s ugly it;s much harder to purge evil that lurks and hides. When it comes out in the open you can confront it, just as you suggest.
It’s all I can think about these days…
At the suggestion of another blogger friend, I started listening to George Carlin’s furious comedy rants on YouTube. (If you haven’t heard him before, give him a listen. He was political before there was a John Oliver, Samantha Bee or John Stewart.) One of the clips featured an attack on the Reagan administration from the 1980s…when I was just out of college and very angry about a former B-movie actor turned CA governor becoming leader of the Free World. It reminded me how terrible the 80s were, politically, and how a lot of friends ignored it all by focusing on pop music and fashion. (Agh, MTV, Michael Jackson and crazy hair!) But somehow we survived that decade. My kids were all born then, and my husband died at the end of it. I have to say myself, ‘You really have survived worse, you can get through this.’
It is horribly disappointing, though. It looked like this country was finally progressing towards a better place in history, and now…. I think what’s been hard for a lot of us is that we don’t know what’s going to happen: This Guy has shown no indication that he’s fit to be a leader. He can run a hotel and that’s about it. (I imagine he’ll try to treat everyone like concierges and maids: let’s see how far that will take him.) If you’re not white, not straight, not Christian, you’ve heard the crap he’s spewed and there’s no reason to believe “he didn’t mean it, that was all just campaign talk.” (I actually heard this from some GOP pundit on the radio. I had to shut it off and I haven’t listened to the radio since.)
You are so right, once we recover from the shock, we have to prepare to fight for the next four years.
Protests are fine, but they need to be done in such a way that the focus is not on the protest itself, but that which the protest is about. Don’t distract from the real problems by creating a new one.
I get what you mean. They also have to focus on the legal level not just running around the streets. It’s going to be a long 4 years.
I found both candidates distasteful and voted for neither. As a result, my co-worker, who I used to like, said I was what is wrong with this country because I didn’t vote for Hillary. She also said if I didn’t believe what she believes than I am wrong. My supposed best friend said that too. He also said I was a liar, twice, and other bad things, after I said I voted for my cat because he “cares about people more than those two candidates.” To him, that statement was “Dragging Hilary’s good name through the mud.” Many people think that people on the right are suddenly going to turn evil. I doubted that but after seeing people on the left turn evil, anything is possible.
Your cat would make a better president. It’s your choice whether to vote or not. It’s not your fault. My issue is, I’d rather have a party in DC that didn’t incite racism, etc. He finally has said to stop it but appoints Bannon, a known supremacist, not ok. Bannon can have his views, he is allowed but it’s not ok to have someone like that in power in a nation with all ethnicities. I don’t want to get preachy with you, IU have to stop, I really can’t accept a gov like this. I didn’t make a stink about Bush/Cheney and I’m am very left wing. This time it’s different. Really, it’s not your fault, you didn’t like them, that’s it. I respect that. Sorry you had to go through that. Bad Cat Chris for 2020 🙂 He’d be the cutest candidate.
I understand. I did not want him to win. I fully expected Hillary to win but I could not vote for her because I dislike her so much.
My heart breaks for you. Please be as safe as you can be!!
I’m in NYC so it’s not that bad for me. Vic said to me yesterday that this is the first time I ever felt like a minority. NYC has a way of keeping you in a bubble. I never quite understood that till the past few years. To me the whole country should be more like NY. Live and Let Live, that’s all we want.
Reblogged this on Exposing the Big Game.