Processing the Election - A Letter To The Editor Of The Gazette

Processing the election
So, I took a day or so to process my feelings over the election. As many of my friends know, I posted a lot of political things over the last year. And yesterday morning, I woke up in tears. I was so sick to my stomach I couldn’t function most of the day. Some of you are probably thinking, “Come on. Seriously. Why all the drama?” Why should I be so upset, right?
You are obviously different from me. I read all the well-meaning and positive comments about unity and hope and praying for our new president (all of them, by the way, written by my white friends). I tried to put everything into perspective. I made a list of what I felt I had in my favor to feel hopeful for the future. I am a “past-her-prime,” deliriously happily married Christian white woman who doesn’t have to work for a living anymore, with a nice home, a healthy family, a few cars in my garage and the ability to travel and concentrate on my hobbies in a state so safe that a lot of people don’t even lock their homes. What do I have to be so worried about?
My ancestors either came to this country in the 1600s or were already here. I am as American as it gets. I mean, I’m not a Muslim who must now fear even more for her safety, but I have friends who are. I’m not African-American with all the social injustices that come with that, but my grandchildren are. I’m not in my child-bearing years, worrying about health care, but my daughters are. I’m not Mexican-American, but my grandchildren are.
The Second Amendment was never a worry for me. In fact, I have never known a single person in my 58 years that has had to defend his or her family using a handgun or automatic assault weapon. I don’t own any guns, but I watch the news every day wondering who will be the next victim of those who do have those weapons.

I’m not young and attractive, so I don’t have to worry much about sexual predators in safe little New Hampshire, but my daughters have to worry, especially now that they have a role model in the White House. I don’t have financial issues about health insurance, but my family does. I don’t live in an area threatened by a pipeline, but my Native American ancestors call me to care not only now but for the future of a planet they treasured. No one in my family serves in the military at this time, but I have four grandsons and two granddaughters who may someday have to fight in wars started by a president who claims to love war.
I was raised in an era where we were taught that Communism and the USSR (Russia, for those of you too young to remember) were our ideological enemies, a time when many people gave their lives during the Cold War to stop the spread, but now we have a president who adores their dictator.
I am not handicapped nor do I have children with disabilities, but I have family members who do and have to worry about a president who mocks those people on TV. I don’t have to depend on social programs, but I once had to depend on food stamps to feed my kids because I didn’t make enough money as a teacher in Oklahoma to take care of my family as a single mom, but I’m sure billionaire, white privileged, private-schooled Mr. Trump is going to correct that problem. With any luck at all, Social Security will only supplement our income, if it survives at all now in a totally Republican-controlled government, but my father counts on it. I could go on and on.
So, I guess, overall, I really shouldn’t be upset, right? The deck seems to be stacked in my favor. I mean, the Lord is in control, right? But the one thing all of us had better remember is that God gave us free will. When we make choices that run counter to His plan for us, we often suffer the consequences of the bad choices we make and the ones made by others.
I cry because I believe with all my heart that my family is going to suffer a great deal from the free will of white America, which decided that a man like Donald Trump should be the leader of the free world, a man whose every word points to a less free world for everyone different from me.
Julie Anderson, a former Edmond public school teacher New Hampshire

The Trump Effect Part 1

I'm pretty nervous about posting this - it's raw and sincere, and I worry it might get lost in the sea of post-election commentary that so many have categorized as "whining..."

But I have to explain why I'm struggling so much with the results of this election/the entire campaign season.
I can't forget - and I don't think we should forget - Trump's words.
...

Politics and policy aside entirely: from his mouth, we heard words that were charged with hatred. Things he even later acknowledged and didn't apologize for. Ways he talked about women. How he addressed people at his rallies, encouraging violence and hateful rhetoric. His campaign told people to be afraid if he wasn't elected. His campaign told people to be afraid in general.
And now that he's elected, I am afraid.
We're seeing the ripples of his words growing in intensity voiced by children in school to their peers who are different from them. I know people who have had slurs yelled at them from cars passing by. My own alma mater - a small Christian campus - has been rattled this week during what was supposed to be a reconciliation service by students intolerant to diversity.
A friend of mine, who happens to be a minister and a gay man, shared these words from his own heart with me:
"...it’s about knowing that 40% of those I think are my friends endorsed an administration that thinks I’m not worthy of the same rights they have. It’s about realizing that 40% of the people I THINK believe I’m a valid person really don’t believe that at all...If it came to it, would they be in the crowd chanting against me?"
Those of us speaking up are not upset by your difference in political opinion. Honestly, We value that difference - we need each other to find balanced and effective solutions.
What would make us less afraid? What would help me personally to trust Trump as a leader?:
He needs to speak out against the voices of his supporters who are terrorizing LGBT people in their communities.
He needs to denounce the KKK.
He needs to apologize to women for the specific horrible things he's said about them.
He needs to show humility and that he values and embodies compassion for the many lives he now represents.
None of this is to suggest I'm not without hope. Even though I don't necessarily see eye to eye with some of the people he has brought into his cabinet, I trust that many of them want the best for all people. I hope for his team to take quick action proving themselves trustworthy and unifying as an administration.
Until then, I will not forget who he has been, what he has said, the many people who have been affected, or the many who fear the effect his influence will have on their lives going forward.
The attached post (by a friend from my alma mater) speaks powerfully about all of this from her first hand post-election experiences. We can't ignore it. We have to demand him to challenge these and his own actions. - Emily Race