Wednesday, November 6, 2024

No More Pretending

This morning, Nov 6th, 2024 is strangely quiet. It could just be my imagination, but I suspect not. Last night things looked to be sliding away so I went to bed about 10:30. I was oddly nonattached to the results of the election I cared so deeply about. It just felt as if the world shifted and I was simply going to have to navigate this new, odd, greedy universe. At 05:00 I woke and decided to check my computer. I had AAP's election results page open. I had to refresh the page and it first went to a map without any results at all. That was disconcerting. Then it popped up with the actual results. I went back to bed and lay awake trying to decide what I felt. I was numb and reflective. It's a tough truth to accept that we are such a frightened, misogynistic, racist country. I was genuinely hopeful that people with genuine empathy and compassion were the majority of my country. Now I was hit with the realization that we have two accused rapists on the Supreme Court and just elected a multiple felon, who is also an accused multiple rapist, and proven fraudster, as the leader of our country. And why? Because people were upset with the increased cost of living. And undocumented immigrants. Why are things more expensive now? Because a global pandemic shut down most economies and trashed supply chains. And when that happened, the criminal we just re-elected made the pandemic much worse through a gross failure of leadership. And why are undocumented immigrants a perceived problem? Because humans like simple answers. Even though such things do not exist in the real world. It's so much more comforting to blame the issues of your country on others. It takes so much less effort than trying to hold leaders in politics and business to a high standard. Those are the thoughts I was pondering. And then I had to face the facts. We are not a bright shining beacon on the hill. We don't trust women or anyone who isn't pasty white to be in charge in any meaningful way. Why? We're so fond of pretending otherwise. We also pretend to be overwhelmingly Christian, yet we don't follow the words or deeds of Jesus Christ. It's really getting exhausting living amongst dishonest, cowardly people. If you don't trust women, or you believe melanin has a direct tie to superiority, please for the love of Christ just say so! If people just stopped pretending, it would be easier to begin challenging those beliefs. Buy hey, we don't like to challenge, or be challenged. As long as we are comfortable in our immediate homes, we really don't care what happens to anyone else.