The Election: The Morning After

“The fortunes of the entire world may well ride on the ability of young Americans to face the responsibilities of an old America gone mad.” – Phil Ochs

In a stunning turn of events after the bitterest election campaign many of us can remember, Donald Trump has become the President of the United States.

Half of this country wanted him, and many of you reading may be among them.

I don’t want to belabor why I am a liberal and why I support the things I support. Hillary Clinton was the most qualified political candidate –male or female – in recent history and that’s a fact even if you hate her, fear her, don’t trust her or weren’t ready for a woman to take office.

Donald Trump claims his not being a politician is an asset and now, the morning after this election, I understand that many of the Americans I share a country with agree. Here’s how I am feeling.

I am scared for our relations, especially with North Korea, China, Israel and Russia. I am scared for our children to grow up with a President in office who speaks so cavalierly about so many things I hold dear. I never thought much about the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO); now I’m thinking about it.

I am scared for people of color. I have black friends who warned me that Trump could win and I didn’t want to believe so many people in my country would support a man who was officially endorsed by the Ku Klux Klan.

I am scared for the hard-working Latinos of this country who came here in search of a better life, and for their families that may be torn apart by deportations. As a mother, this is particularly terrifying.

I am scared for the rights of my numerous family and friends and other American citizens who are gay and lesbian. I worry that their way of life, their rights and their very families will be further compromised.

I am scared for the Muslims of this country, as I have been scared since 9/11, but even more so now. The way they are spoken about in generalizations because of the actions of an extremist few, and the way they are treated by their neighbors who hold fear in their hearts.

I am scared for women who now see that a man who speaks so crassly and inconsiderately about us is now at the helm of our country. I am scared for the men who will now see his success as example, and for the children who are seeing that not paying your taxes, speaking harshly of women and minorities and general crudeness and crassness are acceptable strategies for success.

I have lost faith in the image of a country united with our love for our fellow humans, as the undercurrent of hate has swelled over the last few months. I have lost faith in a country seen as a shining light, because our country’s leader now stands in direct opposition to the values that many hold in the rest of the world.

I am scared for me and my children. But I am tapping into my inner activist, nurtured by my parents, who put their lives at risk to fight for the rights of black students to be allowed into the public schools of New York as part of the civil rights movement of the 1960s. They protested the war in Vietnam on the steps of the Capital. I was raised to be a fighter: I was raised with the Jewish ethic to speak up when injustice is being done and to work towards more acceptance, more rights for all, and especially rights for those who have been ignored and pushed down by those in power.

My spirit wants to fight. And for the right to my body I will fight, this I know. But, I wonder, what else will I be called to fight for? If this country’s leadership decides to tear families apart, separating mothers from their children, I will want to fight. If this country’s leadership challenges basic human equality, restricting people’s rights to be who they are and love who they want, I will want to fight.

This fight is in my blood, and, as a public person with personal convictions and a family, a lot of factors will shape my activism in the years ahead. It will be challenging and complicated, for me and for many of you. But I will figure it out. Many of us will. But I never imagined that, in my lifetime, I would be pondering fighting against the men and women of my own country in this way.

There has been protesting and vandalism and rioting in some places, especially on college campuses, and we will see demonstrations. I pray that these demonstrations will be peaceful. I pray for inspiration from the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and Mahatma Gandhi who practiced non-violent protest as an expression of strength, and effected change.

Right now, I don’t know what to do or how. Honestly, I’m still scared.

But as the smoke clears, I hope that we will see more clearly the paths to action, the initiatives we can support to make a positive difference in the United States and in the world in the aftermath of this conflict-ridden election. I hope that we will treat each other with love and trust instead of hate and suspicion.

I pray that the next four years passes quickly. And I pray for guidance from the Universe to show me what I need to do and how I need to do it.