gratitude-a-thon day 2002: it’s been a year

 

Here is my before (last year’s election) and after (last year’s election).

We are now a year away from hell day. I still remember it like it was exactly six minutes ago, that feeling of being duped, of wanting to do a Cher and “Turn Back Time.” I was shaky that first few weeks. I couldn’t turn off the news. I grabbed my phone in the middle of the night to see if we were still alive. I cried. A lot. The blog became one big political rant. I could think of nothing else. I was grateful for the bubble I lived in, but also wondered how I could not have been aware of the population that had voted for, well, that “thing” who was now being called president.

I kept thinking that my reaction was overblown. I vowed to try and understand the Trump voter, get to the reasons they had such passion for him. I tried to turn off the news, but I couldn’t. I started to listen to CNN and MSNBC in the car. If I could have had Anderson Cooper broadcasting from my bed, I would have.

I kept waiting to get back to my real life, where an adult had been elected president.  I went to a training at the ACLU, I went ot the Boston Women’s March.

I began to realize, I along with so many, were having a little PTSD.

The news got worse everyday. Until the rumors of Russian hacks. Suddenly a glimmer of light peeked through the window. I hung on every word.

Aside from a few weeks, when I banned myself from media, because it was just too much, there hasn’t been a day that I don’t think about the mess our political system is, about the monster and total disaster who heads up our country. I have never been so obsessed with anything in my life.

Last year’s election changed me. I ask for Trump’s impeachment as a gift for all major holidays. I set up an alter to Robert Mueller. I unfriended any idiot who thinks that orange plague is a good president. Those people are not my friends.

But I also know what I stand for and that nobody can sway me from those beliefs. I wish I could say that I think goodness always wins, but I don’t. Not anymore. Still, I hope we can somehow right ourselves. This isn’t about Republcian vs. Democrat. It’s about right vs. wrong.

Here is a hilarious compilation of tweets, showing how people have changed since last year’s election. I knew it before, but it’s been confirmed, in circumstances like this you gotta pray, you gotta take action and you just gotta laugh.