We the Heathens

I am writing 2 articles today.

This one and an overdue book report on the Handmaid’s Tale that I should have done in 1991.

Then I am going to water all my plants and put away my laundry, maybe make enchiladas.

I have a vague semblance of a routine. I change my sheets and water my plants on Sundays. I ended up out for brunch and the bulk of the day with my best girl. Boyfriend was over on Friday and understandably I was not in a rush to get rid of the smell of him on my pillowcases.
So, I waited til Monday. I can’t remember what happened Monday but I didn’t make it to the laundromat. Same with Tuesday.

Tuesday night I went to bed kinda early the election was close and stressful.

To quote Stephen King “It became unspeakable.”

Wednesday I grieved with my people.

I was trying to go about my day and the reality that Donald Trump was the president elect would creep up behind me and scare the fuck outta me, my heart would break again and I would burst into tears.

I watched Stephen Colbert address his audience with the air of a man who was trying to process a death.

Thursday was pretty hard too.

Friday was better.

I made it to the laundromat.

I have re-evaluated my position on this whole thing.

I am still terrified, but I am beginning to understand.

Every fear I have of him/them, they have of her/us.

How can I be justified in my fears and discount theirs? I can’t.

Just as we all fear for our way of life right now, being able to live out in the open as ‘different’, they have been just as scared of all things different.

We have treated them like a sideshow or monkeys in the zoo ‘aw look how cute’ until they start doing what monkeys do and flinging shit for being locked in a cage and stared at. We elevated Paula Deen and the Duck Dynasty boys to fame and then held public floggings for their political incorrectness. Which really only served to tell that massive portion of America that we love you, but only if you play by our rules.

Our all-encompassing love and acceptance for other cultures stopped short and didn’t include 47.5 percent of America.
We called them rednecks, idiots, yokels, racists, sexists, xenophobes.
What I really think they are? Hungry, tired, poor and confused.

No wonder they are pissed off enough to elect a President who shares their fears and has never held public office.

Flint Michigan still has no clean drinking water. The average yearly income has only risen $5000/yr since 1979. Politicians made decisions that created the real estate bubble bursting while shipping jobs overseas. Nothing has gotten better for them. They are trapped in a Walmart loop of 33/hrs per week, no overtime and food stamps. They truly believe ISIS is coming to get them like little kids believe in the boogeyman.

What have we done to allay these fears?

Nothing. We make fun of them. I flaunt my whorish/ungodly self in public and tell them to mind their manners and eat their opinions or else the politically correct police will attack them.

I stated in the last article I wrote that I was born and raised in a Democratic bubble. I was raised without religion and only vague notions of God. My personal belief is that there are miracles and universal energy and things we cannot see, fathom nor explain. I am comfortable with this.

Also, by my own admission upon this blog and in general I am a heavily tattooed stripper who has had a child out of wedlock, abortions and a lot of sex.

I am a heathen.

All my friends are heathens (take it slow) _ 21 Pilots

There was a Gallup poll in 2011 that shows Seventy-seven percent of the population of the United States of America believe in angels. Only 40 percent concede climate change is a reality.

Please re-read that last paragraph as many times as you need to. Let it sink in.

I get attacked on my page, I have been called a baby killer, a whore and all sorts of shit. My reaction? I laugh it off, hit block and delete or I argue and stoop to name calling. “How dare you tell me how to live?”

I realized Friday morning I am guilty of doing that exact same thing.

Yes, I believe in science and rational thought.

I have discounted the entirety of the United States of America except LA and New York and a few pockets of blue, decided that the entire red middle was worthless, sad, disillusioned creationists that were not deserving of my time, energy or understanding.

What have I done?

What have all of us done?

This isn’t how this works.

We can’t sit here on our ivory towers of education yelling down ‘inclusion for all’ and then shut out 47.5 percent of the population.

Remember as we all sat in horror and listened to Trump say he’d ‘think about it’ when it came to conceding?

Um, what are we doing right now?

I don’t think there has never been an election like this in the history of ever.
Now for one second allow yourself to think what would have happened if it had gone the other way? Clinton winning electoral (which still may happen) and Trump taking the popular vote. I shudder to contemplate that group mobilized in anger. Yes, we the democrats have kept it pretty civil, but again, if the Electoral College decides to go with Hillary it is going to get ever so much uglier in a way I am not sure we can recover from.

America is a big open wound and we have to stop picking at it.

So let’s circle back to the grief. I saw something that said ‘grief is just love with nowhere to go.’

We can’t grieve if our love has somewhere to go and it has many places to be right now.
First, with those at risk. I do not believe that every person who voted for Trump is a racist or a misogynist, but there are overwhelming reports that violent behavior is on the rise. Those who have felt leashed and muzzled have been given a voice and free reign. And that is terrifying.
Second, in starting a dialog with the people who felt that had no voice, felt judged and persecuted for their beliefs and way of life.

It’s time for Democrats to do what we do and move beyond tolerating these people and love them.

Louis CK said it best “When a person tells you that you hurt them, you don’t get to decide that you didn’t.”

They are hurt, whether we can rationalize it or not. It’s up to us to say okay ‘what can we do to fix this.’