For my dogs, it is just another day

I have a sense of having woken up in a bad dream.  But this is not a bad dream  This is a sad reality.  I pray that the checks and balances created by our Founding Fathers will be enough to prevent the destruction that could result from the 2016 election, but I am frightened that they will not.

I am not angry.  I don't hate the people that voted the way they voted.  They believed they had good reason.  I am trying to go about my life as if everything is normal.  But the small still voice in my heart is saying I need to be afraid.

Fear is the enemy.  Action is the answer.  The saddest thing is that personally, I have nothing to fear.  I am a cisgendered, white, heterosexual married woman with a home.  And health insurance provided by my company as part of my retirement package.

The fear I have is for all the people that I love who are Muslim, or disabled, or non-White, or immigrants, or LGBTQ,  or have serious health conditions.  I don't believe that everyone who voted for a racist, misogynistic, xenophobic charlatan is racist or bigoted.  I believe many of them simply were easy to manipulate.  Or single issue voters.  Or just angry enough to say "no more" to established politicians.

I can't be angry with people for making mistakes, because being human means making mistakes.  But not being angry doesn't mean being quiet.  And none of us can afford to be quiet now.

But my dogs are fine.   Beaux still wants to play fetch, and Scarlett wants to be pet.  The sun came out from behind the clouds.  The world is still turning.

I have been alive for fifteen presidential elections.  I really remember thirteen of those.  I have been disappointed in the election results before.  I have been ambivalent on the election results before.  Only once have I been truly delighted, and that was when Barack Obama was elected in 2008.  Only once have I been truly sickened, and that is now.  I honestly physically feel sick today.

But that doesn't help or change anything.  I have always been a thorn in the side of my senators and representative, and that won't stop now.

I need to find peace.  I need to work on my novel, because I believe that stories of faith, and hope, stories of love and redemption are going to be sorely needed in the near future.

I will probably not pay attention to the news for the next few days.  I'm going to choose to write, and crochet, and listen to music.

The world turns.  This great experiment in democracy is about to be sorely tested.  The wounds that this contentious election formed will not heal easily, and the scars will be deep.

I hope my worst fears are not realized.  I hope that 20 million Americans don't lose their health insurance.  I hope that marriage equality stays the law of the land.  I hope families are not shattered by deportation.  I hope that a woman's right to choose is preserved.  I hope that laws allowing discrimination are not passed.  I hope we don't go backwards.

And I honestly believe that many of the people who voted for the newly elected president don't think those things are going to happen.

Like Anne Frank, I still believe people are basically good at heart.

I'm just afraid that a not good at heart person just became the most powerful person in the free world.  And I've never felt that way before.