“America, let’s just breathe”

I heard this phrase during the puzzles this morning on Sunday Edition on NPR.  The contestant was just asking for a moment to breathe because she was nervous, but the co-host turned the phrase “America, let’s just breathe.”  And I was inspired to finally finish writing this piece that I’ve been picking at all week…

We are coming off a life-changing week.  For most in my own newsfeed, it’s a week of sadness and loss.  During a time when we expected to see the first female president, we have not.  Every single possible negative characterization has been assigned to our pending President-elect.  I have said many of them as have my sister- and brother-hood.  There is no need to repeat them now.  And there is no need to continue to assign all of those characterizations to our fellow Americans who chose to vote for him.  We made a choice and they made a choice, and in both cases and on both sides of the country, those choices were made as a protest, as a vote against the other party, et cetera.  We can all continue to play Monday morning quarterback and analyze what happened, why it happened and what we could have/should have done differently.  The point is moot.  He was elected.  No, as we need to remind ourselves to placate our damaged souls, not by a majority of the POPULAR vote, but because of an arcane system called the Electoral College.  Nevertheless, it happened. Look at the maps – they were red.  Red like the rage that we ignored that has been plaguing our country.  We, the Pants Suit Nation, are mystified and stunned and wanting to assign all of the possible negative characterizations to this half of the country as we were to the President-elect.  But, the truth is while those characterizations may be true for many of the Trump voters, there were just as many who felt just as strongly against Hillary and US.  “We” were deemed narrow-minded and out of touch and a whole lot of other things after the fact.

I’ve thought about some of those characterizations, particularly after I watched Michael Moore’s segment on Morning Joe.  (Link:  http://www.msnbc.com/morning-joe/watch/michael-moore-joins-wide-ranging-election-talk-806604867876)  (Note:  I am not a regular Morning Joe watcher, but I do follow Michael Moore on Facebook.)  Michael Moore is certainly NOT a Republican, but his case for why the Democrats lost the mid-West cannot be ignored.  “We” do not try to understand the anger and fear that rises out of this segment of society and “we” belittle it as being uneducated and misinformed.  In other words, it’s the very reason that “we” are considered elitist snobs.  One of the panelists tried to make the point that “they” are not trying to see things from “our” point of view, either.  Unfortunately, he was shouted down, as is often the case on any of these pundit type shows.  (Which is frankly why I so rarely watch any of them.)  I think both sides have an equally valid point.  We DON’T hear their cries for help and we DON’T take them seriously.  If we did, don’t you think Hillary would have campaigned more fiercely in Wisconsin after she lost to Bernie? 

There I go, Monday morning quarterbacking again…

Right now, I feel just torn down the middle.  Part of me truly believes, he won, we lost.  We do need to try to find a peaceful way forward.  I hear his supporters say that we should all just trust that things are going to work out and just accept the fact that we lost, et cetera.  I grit my teeth until the enamel feels thin, but I know that there is truth in there.  Like Michelle Obama preached, when they go low, we go HIGH!  (Link: http://www.cnn.com/videos/politics/2016/07/26/dnc-convention-michelle-obama-sot-01.cnn)  I want that.  I want to be the better woman, aligned with better men and women… 

But, I think about how before the election results even came in, Republicans as a coalition were pledging to block her nominees to the Supreme Court, pledging to block all of her legislation, and that’s not even taking into consideration all of the blocking that was done in the previous 8 years.  I think about how the president-elect was one of the founding reasons that the racist, hate-filled “birther” movement even started and…

That’s when the rage and bile rise and that other part of me rises.  The She-Hulk part of me rises and roars and believes that I should join in the protests that are cropping up around the country (including the biggest one being planned, the Women’s March on Washington in January the day after the inauguration).  (Link: https://www.facebook.com/events/2169332969958991/)  I’ve read many of the posts and articles from Trump voters who say “they” aren’t racist, misogynist, et cetera.  And I’ve read the responses – “we” believe you, or at least, we really, really, REALLY want to believe you.  But when the part of my worldview shows that in the wake of a Trump election, there is a rise in hate crimes -- I am scared.  (Link:  http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2016/11/12/post-election-spate-hate-crimes-worse-than-post-911-experts-say/93681294/) I’ve seen battles between family members play on the pages of Facebook.  I’ve heard stories of family members shaming other family members because they didn’t vote Republican.  I have family members who are genuinely afraid that their marriage will be dissolved and their rights stripped away. 

I want to bring reason to the She-Hulk.  I hear from a man on the news who voted for Trump and even sounds at first to be a little skeptical and even, dare I say, reasonable.  Until the reporter asks him, do you think that it’s possible for us to find a way to live in a peaceful, multi-cultural, multi-ethnic society?  And the man says no, it’s can’t be done.

All hope is gone again.

And here, on Day 5, She-Hulk and I, we try to figure out how to remember to just breathe.