What, the fuck?
Only time will reveal the consequences of this choice, not only for America but the world at large.
Some people I have spoken to are hopeful that it won't be that bad.
Others are more despairing. The first American I encountered post result was masquerading as Canadian. Given the fact that the Canadian immigration website has crashed, it seems that it is the Mounties that need a big wall built to keep out the flood of US emigrants.
Hope is a good thing. Denial is not. There's a fine line between the two.
I sat with Dragon and we watched Trump's acceptance speech together. I cried and she asked me why. I explained that I did not like him. I listed the reasons. Maybe I should not have explained sexism and racism to a young child who has had little exposure to these realities. Let her stay in her bubble for a little while longer.
It was not a normal morning though. And I have always tried to answer Dragon honestly, if appropriately, when she asks any question.
Later on that evening, we watched Hilary Clinton's concession speech together. I cried again. And then Dragon turned to me and said:
I wish I was white. That I had white skin.
There are moments in life when time stands still. This was one of them. The emotion I felt was cataclysmic.
Why?
Because Donald Trump is unkind to people who are not white.
Despair, regret, pain, fear, compassion, fortitude, anger, sadness. I cannot articulate how that moment felt.
The Western first world has changed and it will be Dragon's generation that bears the legacy of the decisions being made. I do not want her to grow up burdened. I do not want her to grow up unprepared.
I do not have the answers but I have no choice but to unravel my way through this maze we now face.
Courage. We will need it.
Only time will reveal the consequences of this choice, not only for America but the world at large.
Some people I have spoken to are hopeful that it won't be that bad.
Others are more despairing. The first American I encountered post result was masquerading as Canadian. Given the fact that the Canadian immigration website has crashed, it seems that it is the Mounties that need a big wall built to keep out the flood of US emigrants.
Hope is a good thing. Denial is not. There's a fine line between the two.
I sat with Dragon and we watched Trump's acceptance speech together. I cried and she asked me why. I explained that I did not like him. I listed the reasons. Maybe I should not have explained sexism and racism to a young child who has had little exposure to these realities. Let her stay in her bubble for a little while longer.
It was not a normal morning though. And I have always tried to answer Dragon honestly, if appropriately, when she asks any question.
Later on that evening, we watched Hilary Clinton's concession speech together. I cried again. And then Dragon turned to me and said:
I wish I was white. That I had white skin.
There are moments in life when time stands still. This was one of them. The emotion I felt was cataclysmic.
Why?
Because Donald Trump is unkind to people who are not white.
Despair, regret, pain, fear, compassion, fortitude, anger, sadness. I cannot articulate how that moment felt.
The Western first world has changed and it will be Dragon's generation that bears the legacy of the decisions being made. I do not want her to grow up burdened. I do not want her to grow up unprepared.
I do not have the answers but I have no choice but to unravel my way through this maze we now face.
Courage. We will need it.
