Miasma and Music
I'm trying to lift my head and heart out of the miasma of dread and disappointment that is weighing on so many of us after the election. I have never felt like this as a woman. Never. To know that this country is so misogynistic that they would choose the President Elect....I just can't fathom. I have felt sick to my stomach for a day and a half and it doesn't seem to go away. Don't speak to me of flawed candidates or third parties. Any male with Clinton's experience, for better or worse, would now be President Elect. It sickens me and scares me.
From a friend's Facebook message yesterday:
The negative consequences of a president-elect Trump are already being felt on the University of Illinois campus at Urbana-Champaign. This is where I work and this is only the beginning.
As reported by a University of Illinois professor:
• A student reported that her friend saw a man flash a knife at a Muslim student on the bus on the way to campus this morning.
• Several Latino/a students have had Trump supporting students attempt to intimidate and threaten them.
• There is a student openly bragging online that he and his friends are the ones who chalked threatening messages outside the Latino/a Studies building last year and stating that with Trump as president they are now empowered that the new leader of this country shares their beliefs that we Latino/as do not belong here.
• Students and faculty have witnessed that on the quad today Trump supporters have been shouting at all students of color who walk by. Students formed a human chain for a while for solidarity.
• Right now there is a man there waving an American flag and yelling at students of color.
I've walked through life as a woman without much blatent misogyny. Yeah, I've been groped on the El and harassed at bars in uncomfortable ways but you shrug it off. Yeah, when I sit in training sessions at the University and see how few men are in these mid-level roles I try to push it out of my mind. But this? This really brought it home.
I spent much of yesterday feeling helpless and unfocused, reading new stories over and over. My colleague, who feels much as I do, told me she'd give me a few days and then I had to stop. She's right as she knows my obsessive tendencies. Ernie took me for a drink after work. We don't usually do that two days in a row, but desperate times you know. I texted Owen about something and told him that we'd be home in a bit, that Ernie was buying me a drink because I needed one and he texted back, "No kidding, about 300 million people need a drink." I love my boys so. I worry about their world. Leo said nobody mentioned the election in any of his classes. That is so weird to me. Sigh.
And so, as I always do, I turn to music. It gets me through. And never have we needed a house concert like this Bob Woodruff one to bring us together. Friday, potluck at 6, music at 7:30 so you'll have time to get to the Scott Miller show if you want. Pay what you want. It will do us good to gather. Love to all.