Is It Over Yet?

Can I do it now?   Can I take my hands away from my eyes now?  You kids promised a nice surprise and I can’t take the suspense any longer.  I have to look.  Okay, one, two, three, and OH MY JESUS EFFIN CHRIST!  WHAT HAVE YOU KIDS DONE TO OUR COUNTRY?*

I was hoping that you would vote for hope and optimism, but no, you gave in to your fears.   Now we are at risk of turning back time to another era when bigotry and racism were seen as part and parcel of the American fabric.  People abhorred it even as we shrugged our shoulders with a silent “It is what it is”.

I know many people say that it never went away, and I know that’s correct.   The notion of a “post-racial” American society was a cruel punch line we pretended was true as the first African-American ascended to the Oval Office eight years ago.   America’s black community did not see many changes in their lives.  Fortunately they and many others outside those communities continued the fight through the years.

This is the cynical mood Warrior Queen and I have been in for the last few months of the election.  We hoped, we now know it was hope against hope, that our fellow Americans would reject the notions of fear of a rank amateur and vote for a seasoned veteran of the political landscape.   It’s a small consolation that the veteran is on track to outpoll her rival (votes are still being counted in California) by several million votes.   Still her rival is now recognized as the President elect.

Suddenly this consolation feels like salt being poured liberally into an open, gaping wound.

We, in our despair, have been commiserating with like minded individuals in the blogosphere.  Many of us are still in shock and probably will conduct our daily lives zombie-like for the foreseeable future.  So be it!  If we conduct ourselves in a trance or with our eyes wide open, we must continue on and fight the subtle fight.

I’m contemplating a monthly donation to Planned Parenthood in the name of women who are seeking diagnostic help against cancer.  The champions of defunding this charity seem to overlook the important work they do for women’s health.  My God, their blindness is horrible.

I believe my monthly contribution to the Southern Poverty Law Center will be put to good use defending the progress made in the LGBT community during the past eight years.  The defense will be needed.   The hate crimes are already on the rise, and the damned President elect hasn’t even been inaugurated yet!

At this time, I am thinking about one of my favorite lines from “Blazing Saddles”, in which Slim Pickens makes the astute observation that we virtually wipe out one culture (the American Indian) just to turn around and allow another culture (African American) make headways into mainstream (read: white) society.  I can update and paraphrase the spirit of his words here:

Now if that don’t beat all.   Here we take the good time and trouble to knock down every vestige of hatred we can find and for what?  So we can elect a man with more bigotry and venom in him than any other man elected before him.  I am depressed.

Depressed, yes…but determined to fight on!

*As a middle-aged man approaching sixty, I feel comfortable spouting off like the crazed elder at a family gathering.  Overall my peers have children who are grown and have children of their own, and what the hell.  I think I deserve to rant.

(Thank you for reading.  Janey, if you can read this, call us!)