Hi all -
Writing is therapeutic for me and heaven knows the current state of democracy in America requires a lot of therapy. I have done some blogging in the past and have created this site as a place to organize my thoughts and channel my hopes and fears.
It has been a very long year and a half and American democracy has arrived at a place that I never imagined possible when Donald Trump rode down the escalator at Trump Tower to announce his candidacy. But on January 20, 2017, Donald Trump became the 45th President of the United States. How the hell did that happen? I tend to be a pretty upbeat person but I found the events of inauguration day deeply depressing.
I am worried and I am frightened. I am worried that millions of my fellow citizens will be very badly hurt by the actions of this man and his administration as their access to healthcare disappears and their civil rights are trampled. I am worried that our democracy is not strong enough to withstand this assault on its institutions. And I am afraid of the potential consequences of having a deeply pathological president with the nuclear codes. When I was in high school in the early 70’s we were shown an absolutely terrifying movie called The War Game - a 1965 British documentary style drama depicting the aftermath of a nuclear attack on Britain. This movie scared the living shit out of me as a 15 year old. Decades later, the apocalyptic images from this film have traveled from the deep recesses of my teenage brain to my 61 year old pre-frontal cortex. It has been a very long year and a half and American democracy has arrived at a place that I never imagined possible when Donald Trump rode down the escalator at Trump Tower to announce his candidacy. But on January 20, 2017, Donald Trump became the 45th President of the United States. How the hell did that happen? I tend to be a pretty upbeat person but I found the events of inauguration day deeply depressing.
I have found action to be the best antidote for the worry and fear. Attending the Women’s March this past Saturday provided a needed hit of optimism. We boarded a light rail train in downtown Minneapolis on the assumption that parking anywhere near the capitol in St. Paul would be difficult. We never anticipated that the entire train would be packed full after the first stop and our train would leave hundreds and hundreds of people behind at subsequent stops because there was no additional room. The organizers of the Women’s March Minnesota had predicted a turn-out of 20,000. The St. Paul police estimated final attendance at 90-100,000! The voices of the millions of women and their allies, in the US and around the world, have restored my faith in the power of the collective action of principled people. And, as the cartoon says, we have some powerful allies.
