Thoughts On The Day After The Election

Sexism, racism, misogyny, nativism, and xenophobia are alive and well in a vast part of America. We should all be ashamed.

With Trump and the Republicans now holding control of the lawmakers in Congress and soon the Supreme Court, who knows in what direction we are headed. My great fear, and it has been since the possibility of a Trump Presidency first reared its ugly head, is that we will no longer be the land of the free and the brave, the model of democracy, the benevolent friend to people and nations across the planet who are suffering from oppression and tyranny, the refuge for the "tired, the poor, the huddled masses yearning to breathe free". I fear now that we will be seen as, and will become, the bully of nations, an unwelcoming giant to be feared, a symbol of greed and arrogance, etc. That is not my country...not the country that I have known and loved. I hope I'm wrong but I have serious doubts and great fear that I am not.

I'm grieving today for the millions of American's who will, once again, be without health insurance and left to fend, (and die) for themselves.

I'm grieving today for the loyal citizens of the United States who are Muslim and now must live in fear not knowing what their future in this country holds for them and their children and grandchildren....and for all of the refugees from the middle east who have been devastated by war and forced out of their homelands. The torch of the mighty woman on Liberty Island has gone out and no longer glows with a world-wide welcome.

I 'm grieving today for people of color in America now that a clearly racist, xenophobic man like Trump has been elected President giving so many other racist xenophobes throughout the land carte blanch to profile, persecute and assert their hatred upon them.

I'm  grieving today for women in America who are now fearful that men, more than ever before,  will feel emboldened to treat them as chattel or objects of sexual conquest, and, if they should resist, be subject to a crass beratement.

I'm grieving today for the poor and disadvantaged of America, who once again have had their spirit, and their hope for a better future dashed. 

I'm grieving today for senior citizens (of which I am one) who have paid hard earned money over the course of their working years into the Social Security system and now, in retirement,  depend on the program for financial safeguard, because Trump has promised, for "moral reasons",  to slash it to the bare bones.

I'm grieving today for Christianity which has been hijacked by a conservative political agenda commonly known as  Conservative “Christian" that has turned its back on one of the central tenets of the Bible. The tenet that Jesus said was “The sum of the law and all the prophets” to love God and your neighbor as you do yourself”

And I grieve today, perhaps most of all, for the children of America. At a time in their lives when they need positive roll models, they have a President of the United States who models bullying, makes fun of the disabled, lies incessantly, treats women like sex objects or verbal punching bags, believes in "getting even" and shows no compassion, no remorse, or no willingness to admit that he is ever wrong.

I could go on....there are many more to grieve for, but I'm tired....I've been up all night...grieving for my country.
 
So now the election is over, the electoral college system, if not the majority of American people, has determined that Donald Trump will be our next President.  I must accept that outcome, and I do, albeit with great fear and trepidation. I can only hope and pray that, when the Trump Presidency is over,  we will still be the country that I've been proud to call my homeland for almost seventy years, the land of the free and the brave, with liberty and justice for all.  The future of our children and grandchildren depend on it.