aftermath - a few wise words

I stepped out into the world this morning expecting it to be a far uglier, meaner place; as I rode my bike, it felt like people were driving with more anger, more freedom to be rude and endanger others. At the Y, everyone was talking about only one thing, by the lockers, in the gym, in the sauna, we all joined in with commiseration and genuine grief. I went to speak particularly to my friends of colour there, Annie and Charmaine, who were both in shock. We were all in shock, and sorrow, and horror and despair. And then I talked to a bright young man in my class, a Muslim immigrant from Jordan who said, "Hillary or Trump, they were both just as bad." I jumped down his throat. "But she's just a professional politician and a liar!" he said. When asked what exactly she'd lied about, he couldn't say.

Bravo to Fox News, Julian Assange and Vladimir Putin, who did their smear job extremely well.

But it was my friend Godana who really helped, Godana who's been for decades in political exile from his native Ethiopia. "Being depressed and scared doesn't help," he said. "There's nothing we can do. Yes, when we can do something, we should do it. But here, there's nothing we can do. So we let it go, we go on, we hope for the best." He's right. Despair accomplishes nothing. Even though I feel like I've been pummelled with bricks, there's nothing to do but ...

But wait, how is it possible, everyone kept saying, for a country full of intelligent people to make such an appallingly stupid destructive choice? Stephen Hawking opined that human greed and stupidity are going to destroy the planet; how right he was. Michael Moore knew what was happening. At least 3 weeks ago, he said on the Bill Maher show that Trump was going to win. Nobody believed him because it just was not possible. But Moore understands the soul of the white working class.
Michael Moore

5 hrs · 

Morning After To-Do List:
1. Take over the Democratic Party and return it to the people. They have failed us miserably.
2. Fire all pundits, predictors, pollst...

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But wait - I'm grabbing desperately for a silver lining - had Hillary won, she would have had to deal with such poison and hideous dysfunction, such a blatantly unrealistic vision of America, her job would have been impossible. Maybe half the country's corrosive anger and desire for change, any change, needs to be indulged; it's a festering boil to be lanced and drained, and then we start again. Sorry for the nasty image, but that's surely one of the only possible positives to come from this.

There's nothing we can do except hug the people we love and be kinder to one another. Always, be kinder to one another. And to thank Hillary Clinton for a profoundly moving speech and all her incredible hard work. That poor woman.

Lynn wrote from France that Trump's victory has empowered the vicious fascist Marine LePen. Thinking about the environment, the economy, refugees, the chaos that will ensue, the heart breaks. Nothing to do except let it go. Let it go. Let it go.

Well, maybe a little glass of wine too, though it's early.