Tag: American democracy

a post-election reckoning

In the predawn hours on the day after the election, I processed my angst through my writing. I submitted this piece to GirlTalkHQ and they graciously decided to publish it.

If you’re feeling the way I’m feeling, you likely need to cope with your grief, your anger, your dismay. This is for you.

Here’s how the piece begins:

They chose the rapist.

They empowered the serial, sexual abuser.

The one who famously values women only for how sexually attractive they are to him.

The one who hand-picked Supreme Court justices who then stole reproductive rights from American women, rights they’d previously sworn were safe.

The one who bragged about that revocation of reproductive rights, how he was responsible for turning the clock back fifty years. Who selected a running mate who assesses females based on their reproductive status and their usefulness for the tasks of bearing, raising, and caring for children.

Supporters of this presidential ticket openly laughed about how their opponent — a former prosecutor-state attorney general-US senator-vice president — was a prostitute who gave blow jobs in order to get ahead, that she worked street corners.

They called their competitor stupid. A bitch. A hoe. The c-word.

To read the rest, go to GirlTalkHQ.

it’s not a mr. smith goes to washington world: a nation’s core values under attack, from within

Claude Rains and James Stewart in Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939) .jpgI’ve been feeling frustrated and routinely aghast at the antics of the current leader of the United States, and his proxies who control the U.S. Senate. It was the president’s recent, unrelenting attacks on the deceased war hero, U.S. Senator John McCain, that prompted me to pull out the laptop and write.

I used to be an optimist, a Frank-Capra-Mr.-Smith-Goes-to-Washington kind of optimist. I believed, whole cloth, all those values of freedom, democracy, and statesmanship would endure, no matter who sat in the Oval Office.

I was wrong.

Here’s an excerpt of the piece I published on Medium:

Right now, I am grieving for the United States.

For thoughtful statesmanship and diplomacy, which are no longer important to our commander-in-chief.

For common decency in the public square, which is largely absent and is rapidly disappearing altogether, everywhere.

For the common values of kindness that parents teach their children, as our nation’s leaders have been role-modeling cruelty and avarice.

For the importance of acting in an ethical manner, even when it goes against one’s personal interests.

For the respect our leaders used to show for the virtues of freedom and democracy, especially as our president embraces dictators and tyrants, and considers laws beneath him.

Read the full post here.

Image credit: Wikipedia, promotional still from the 1939 film Mr. Smith Goes to Washington , published in National Board of Review Magazine. (Columbia Pictures – National Board of Review Magazine for November 1939, Volume XIV, Number 8, page 14, Dominio público.)