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The unfathomable has happened, and I am grieving and disgusted. This blog as a whole is about amplifying good, but sometimes the best you can do is pull yourself up from the floor. I am incredulous, disappointed, staggered, shocked, appalled, deeply concerned, and excruciatingly frustrated. My heart cries out for all women and every minority in this country. I do not feel safe with this unstable, flippant, reactionary man at our helm, with unmitigated control over our nuclear power.

I knew this man from two decades working the construction industry in New York City, when his newest unconscionable scandals and glib corruption were regularly on the front page. And that we would elect someone to our highest office that spews and “normalizes” hateful rhetoric is an anathema to me.

Giving tax cuts to the wealthiest has long proven not to work for anyone but them. I am passionate about sustainability and the desperate, acute need to prevent further losses to our planet due to pollution and global warming. I am ardently against Citizen’s United, and I am a staunch supporter of Roe vs. Wade, but I could take the Supreme Court going in a direction I deeply disagree with if the figurehead that appointed them had genuine integrity, and motives of peace, love, and service to all mankind. And meanwhile, how is it okay that Obama’s Supreme Court appointment was stalled and prevented, which was his total right to do under his watch?

A dear Republican friend and blog reader of mine says, “the people have had it with the lies and corruption and business as usual in DC. They want hope and change…they didn’t get it as promised in 2008-2016.” But where is the ownership that there was no change explicitly because the Republican leaders systematically blocked any attempt for it? And since when is the solution to cronyism the election one of the most corrupt and despicable men in recent history?

I bring this up, because now when we Democrats don’t like the leadership, what are we to do? Will we be as resistant and as successfully obstructionist to their agenda as they were to ours, or will we try to work together as we wish they had done? Either way we loose something. Should we let them fail spectacularly, and go down with the sinking ship, or start quickly bailing water, and let them think they did better than we did during all those years that they were blocking every possible step of progress? This conundrum is the tight rope we moderates and liberals will be walking for the next years.

But somehow, individually, regardless of that, we must rise up and build something better out of this devastation. All this awful stuff has come to the surface to be healed. We must bend over backward to be better than the mysogenistic, bigoted, angry, slandering, disenfranchised, vitriolic persona of America that people voted for.

I want to go hug my Muslim neighbors, and reassure every young girl I know. I will try to flagrantly proliferate compassion, to find a way to still be confident that love always trumps hate, to urgently stress sane caution toward the global community, and to vehemently protect the sustainability of our delicate environmental balance.

But the message is clear that character, morals, and ethics, were either not primary values or motives in this election, or that the media distorted those things beyond recognition and believable consideration. This is alarming, but we must respond beyond indignation, by instead actively demonstrating the very highest motives as present and all-powerful in our own lives.

We are accountable to ourselves in the world at large. Can we harness a quiet movement of very intentional, extreme personal goodness, to speedily grow and overtake our country and the world? Can we create a world where a racist, homophobic, xenophobic sexual assaulter, whose campaign was based on fear, hate, and greed would never have a moment’s chance?

I believe at least the younger generation can do this with our support. We are required to love more for every hate. This sounds very idealistic, but such a grassroots movement can be rendered practical if done conscientiously, gaining momentum until exponential.

Man’s extremity is God’s opportunity. Let us seize that and run with it, each diligently doing our part in this incipient war against evil, which is neither person, place or thing. Somewhere there is a higher view to obtain from this, and in our broken-heartedness we must look up. We must rebuild worthiness and trust, one relationship at a time, and somehow find authentic unity and respect for all, overcoming the hateful rhetoric, backwards plunging courts, and whatever other damage may ensue. 

FEAR is an acronym for False Evidence Appearing Real, or Forgetting Everything About Reality. I am uncomfortable because I am not usually on the side of fear; I have some earnest praying to do to shake it’s influence currently plaguing my thought. But I will do that hard work and hope you join me in that. 

We must not succumb to the fear; for after all, the only thing we have to fear is fear itself. So fight it with me, please. Let’s remove it’s imposition from all sides. Let’s fight for a country where “all men are created equal.” Let’s fight for the best to be brought to bear in both political parties. Let’s fight for tolerance, and for a fearless future.

We must buck up and do our part in the rebuilding of a loving, trustful, integrity-filled, bi-partisan America. We can start by loving the person in front of us, of whatever stripe.  

Somehow God is still large and in charge, and the government is upon His shoulder. Love and kindness will not be allowed to be left out of the equation. Good prevails, even when it doesn’t look like it does. Miracles can happen, and I am ready to both be dazzled and be part of the solution. I hope you are too.

And no matter who you voted for and why, I love you all. Now I’m off to pray and paint, and walk and cook, and shine my light in this world.  May we all survive this sad but pivotal moment in our collective history.

Thanks for letting me get all this off my chest– better late than never. I do not relish the thought that if I had done more there might have been a different outcome. So while I generally will continue to stay off of political posts on this blog, right now I needed this exception. I very much appreciate your patience with me as I work through this.

Let us get beyond grieving to healing and practical action. Let us rise up and build, and be passive no more, defending and promoting all that is good for generations to come.

(And please feel free to share this post with those it could help. Thank you.)

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