On Nov 9 we awakened into a twisted world, a distorted, terrifying fun-house mirror reality – except without any fun. \u00a0Instead, just the creepy feeling that something is off. I still feel as though we’ve all somehow slipped into an alternate reality, an “opposite land” where everything is backwards. \u00a0I keep hoping I’ll wake up.<\/p>\n
I’m surprised to find myself just a little bit envious of our loved ones who died during the months before the “election”. \u00a0They didn’t live to see Nazis and KKK holding “victory marches” after the presidential candidate with the least votes somehow “won”.<\/p>\n
It was a coup.<\/p>\n
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If you’ve followed my music for any amount of time, or if you know me, you know I’m generally quite positive. \u00a0 The things we learn from life can help keep us on an even drama-free keel:<\/p>\n
But this time, I must admit that I’ve been dismayed. \u00a0I couldn’t really speak much the first few days, and these rather dark thoughts kept circling around my mind:<\/p>\n
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I hope I’m wrong. \u00a0I hope we surprise ourselves. \u00a0I’m finding myself in meditation a lot more often.<\/p>\n
It’s time for us collectively to take a deep breath, center ourselves, and decide what we want to do, what we are able to do.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n
It feels like a nation in mourning. \u00a0It feels like right after 9-11. \u00a0It feels like we’re weeping together for a lost loved one…We feel as if we’ve collectively suffered a death: the death of the dream of a democratic, equal country.<\/p>\n
Part of what keeps me somewhat sane right now is searching for another place to call home. \u00a0A country that’s an actual democracy. \u00a0A sane country. \u00a0And one that would accept creative souls without a lot of cash in their pockets; that part seems to be a bit problematic.<\/p>\n
The Nazi party and the KKK have held victory parades after the “election”. \u00a0They’ve posted all over the internet during the race that “tRump will start the ovens again.”<\/p>\n
Hate crimes have skyrocketed: hate against latinos, blacks. gay people, trans people, immigrants, muslims, asians, women… angry white men are beating up everybody else, screaming that this is “tRump’s AmeriKKKa now!”<\/p>\n
We’re seeing swastikas spray-painted on houses, cars, walls. \u00a0The words “Heil tRump” scrawled on buildings, shouted by overweight gun-toting Nazis. \u00a0Violence. Bigotry. Hate has blossomed.<\/p>\n
I keep thinking, perhaps the “adults”, maybe the Intelligence Community, maybe even some in the Military, will stop this thing. \u00a0(Wow, how wild is it to actually want to trust the CIA?) \u00a0Is there really anyone “in charge”? \u00a0How could we allow a sleazy pervert, a lying con artist, a racist, sexist fascist man into the People’s White House?<\/p>\n
Will anyone reveal how the coup was accomplished, call for a new vote with verifiable paper ballots? \u00a0Will the hundreds of thousands of legitimate minority voters who were told at the ballot box that they’d been removed from voter rolls – will they now be able to regain their vote and be counted? \u00a0Will we right this wrong? \u00a0I keep hoping.<\/p>\n
But no “adults” have stepped up.<\/p>\n
It seems all the good people are, like me, dumbstruck. \u00a0But you know what? \u00a0We are the majority and we are holding each other up. \u00a0Never forget that. \u00a0Nobody’s alone in this. \u00a0We are united and must remain so.<\/p>\n
Between the extreme GOP gerrymandering and the hundreds of thousands of legitimate voters stripped from the rolls, not to mention the fact that voting machines are easily hacked…these results could have been predicted. \u00a0Some of us have been decrying our blind faith in voting machines, for years.<\/p>\n
And let’s not even talk about the fake “news” sites and posts that were designed to support tRump and tear the energized Democrats apart. \u00a0We watched it happen as Bernie supporters and Hillary supporters were fed stories to turn them against each other. \u00a0Many of us fell for that, to our eternal regret.<\/p>\n
Perhaps we will awake from this nightmare. \u00a0I hope so. \u00a0Now is the time we’ll find out how resilient our spirits are<\/em>.<\/p>\n
I had expected to spend the next 4 years pushing HRC left, complaining in those times when she showed her centrist attitudes, delighting in our small victories. \u00a0Never did I dream that we’d wind up under tRump’s authoritarian boot. \u00a0At this critical time for climate and our planet, for civil rights, for all that we hold dear…… this?<\/em><\/p>\n