I am
grieving, and I know grief. It is with that that I
help others. I went through
anticipatory grief when Bernie was the victim of the Dems’ primary election
rigging. I still return to anger over
that at times, and despair. But I am now
grieving not the loss of an election, but the loss of our civility, the loss of
rationality, the loss of Democracy and tolerance and compassion. I am grieving the death of the soul of our
nation.
At first, I
was in DENIAL. I denied that it
could happen, even right up until 2am election night. The denial was short-lived, though and I went
to bed in disgust.
So then, it
was ANGER. Yes, I returned to the
anger over Dems primary rigging and the claims that Bernie was not electable
because he is a Democratic Socialist but Hillary was , ignoring the rampant
racism experienced with President Obama and the obstructionism that came with
it and the VERY apparent misogyny that Hillary was already facing. I was angry that she claimed she could get
things done with the Reprobates, even while they were talking about putting her in prison. I am angry because for one, brief and shining
moment we had the chance to reverse our trending toward Oligarchy and that
chance was killed by DEMOCRATS. I am
angry because some could not be bothered to vote and others wrote in
non-candidates, even people who will be directly hurt by the outcome of this
election and its consequences. I am
angry because so many hypocritically claimed some religious moral high ground
and voted for a guy whose only god is himself, who is the poster boy for
IMMORAL Greed, abuses of Power and the licentiousness (fundies love that word)
that those on the religious “right” say they abhor. I am angry because some among them will gloat
over this election victory as if it is a sign of God’s blessing, just like the Confederates
who enslaved other human beings did in order to make money for themselves off their backs, and as
the Nazi SS soldiers did with their “Gott Mitt Uns” belt buckles. I am angry because, truly they claim the name
of Jesus, who I love, but the REAL gods of their devotion are Mammon, Mars and
Bacchus. I am angry because of the
blatant hatefulness, bigotry, intolerance and lies that people ignored with him
all the while denying their own and how he resonated with them because of
it. I am angry because of family members
and "friends"who allow their deep-seeded bigotry and fear to guide them to irrational and
intolerant behaviors. I am angry because
the Oligarchs have succeeded in duping the gullible into blaming immigrants,
Muslims, people of color and the poor for the plight that poor and working
class white folk struggle in BECAUSE OF THOSE OLIGARCHS that they
serve and idolize. I am angry because everyone knows
or should know by now that when Reprobates control the economy they
consistently destroy it with their trickle down that doesn’t, so that the
wealthy and ruthless gain by exploiting the serfs under them in their “New
Gilded Age” vision. I am angry because
STUPIDITY and HATRED are the ONLY winners here.
I briefly go
through bouts of BARGAINING. I
hear some saying, “maybe it won’t be as bad as we think” and that the great
Orange Menace reached out in his victory speech, even that maybe I will wake up
from this dream or somehow be able to see it reversed magically. That is my desperate need to somehow change this
reality that I can no longer deny.
I am solidly
in DESPAIR. I am saddened for
people who I love who do not look like me.
I am saddened that 20 million plus will lose their medical
benefits. I am sad that my LGBT sisters
and brothers will lose their marriage rights and anti-discriminatory laws, and
that the violent intolerance and exclusion of them will become a new norm yet
again. I am sad that my brown and black
sisters and brothers will be profiled and held down, back and out even more
blatantly because those emboldened by this election believe it is their right
to do so. I am sad that they will lose
voter rights again (even more-so), and that gerrymandering will cut them/us out
of whatever small amount of influence we had in elections, while corporations enjoy unlimited influence over our politicians. I am very sad and scared because this “police
state candidate” will allow the genocide of young, black males and females and “justify”
it. This wall builder will deport
millions. This “business tycoon” will
destroy our economy by de-regulation, plunging us into more crises like the
last Reprobate’s administration did and he and his cronies will blame the poor,
taking away what little they have had to sustain them, lower the wages of
workers and maximize the profits of the “job creators” who ship jobs overseas
to HIS companies and lay millions off in the process. And then they will again/still dupe the
gullible into scapegoating minorities and the poor for their losses. I am deeply saddened that our poor youth will
not be able to attend the “for profit” schools, but will be rounded up to be
farmed out to farms and factories for free labor from the “for profit” prisons.
I am afraid and saddened by the looming
return to “The Gilded Age” and “New Jim Crow” years, the claims that small
government with a higher concentration of power for fewer leaders means less
government interference regarding ruthless profiteering, but the legislation of
peoples’ love lives and women’s bodies.
I am deeply saddened and troubled that their Supreme Court appointees
will oversee the end of Roe v. Wade, voter rights, equality, LGBT rights and
other civil liberties, all under the false guise of being “moral” and “upright”
or “safe”, while enhancing open carry laws and “stand your ground” laws,
designed to keep people in fear. I am
saddened for the de-valuing of intelligence, intellectual pursuits, rational
and reasonable debate and discussion, civility, science and the environment,
that will cause great harm to the planet we live on (pollution, waste,
destruction) for the profit of a very few, and ultimately kill us all. I am saddened and frightened for anyone not
straight, white, “evangelical fundy” and conservative. I lament that we will be laughed at by much
of the world and hated by the rest of it as “America the Hateful and Stupid”. I weep over the certainty that we will send
more of our young people off to die in more wars for the profit of a very
few.
Normally,
DESPAIR is the worst stage of grieving and comes before ACCEPTANCE. For me and perhaps us, I believe that the
only thing WORSE in this grief than ANGER or DESPAIR is the ACCEPTANCE of this “New Norm”
of hatefulness, violence, Greed, abuses of Power, Narcissistic Nationalism,
Racism, Classism, Ethnocentrism, Sexism, Homophobia and Religious Intolerance.
So, it looks
like I will be grieving for a long time, at LEAST four years, and probably
decades as we work to unbury ourselves from the losses we will suffer. I will, no doubt, return most to my ANGER and
DESPAIR and get stuck in them, because I NEVER want to come to the ACCEPTANCE
of THIS as our NEW NORMAL.
Rev.
Jamie Kaufman
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