Elections

Yikes. 2 months since my last post. So much has changed since the start of September that I need to update this blog before the year that it was intended to mark runs out. However, with the results of the US election now in, I want to get down some of my thoughts and feelings as a way of dealing with them.

2016 has been a tough year for me, politically. In June, I watched in despair as lies, fear and frustration ruled in the Brexit vote, and it's only now becoming clear what an absolute mess the whole situation is. None of the key players are still around to be held accountable for their actions, the country has been given a Prime Minister who hasn't been voted for and the entire Brexit process seems to be one unending shambles. The hardest part, I thought at the time, was that there was no one really here who I could explain my sadness to. I'm a hearty believer in unity, so I was always going to be pro European, and the vote to leave it signaled a change in society that I couldn't fathom. It was at that time that I felt a long way from my friends and family, and I'm still not sure I've been able to talk through it properly. People over here were curious, but my conversations would only last a few lines before I could see them ready to move on.

Last night, I again watched in horror as lies, fear and frustration won the US election and I've spent today in a sort of fugue, easily distracted by work, but every now again realizing the situation the electorate has put everyone in. The Brexit part of my brain tries to square things off by saying that it will all work out in the end, and that we need to pull together, but when I look at the Republican President, Senate, Congress and Supreme Court, so many progressive ideals that I hold dear, like marriage equality, universal affordable healthcare and welfare, are in immediate if the rhetoric of the winner's campaign is anything to go by. I thought it would be better here as I'd have people to talk to about it, but today has been hard because I've found myself deliberately not wanting to discuss, at least with anyone who doesn't hold the same passion for change. I think it's that deep sense of loss and sadness at the direction society seems to be taking that hurts the most, and discussing and dealing with that hurt will take a long time to reconcile.

Of course, there is the possibility that the President Elect's statements of being "for all Americans" will be true and he will somehow change into a healing force. I dream that this could be true, but nothing I saw in the campaign makes me believe that he will act in anyone's best interests but himself and those like, and that when it comes to hard tasks like "draining the swamp", fixing the economy, dealing with complex foreign situations or  trying to heal the racial divides, he simply won't be up to the task, and won't have surrounded himself with people equipped to do anything but muddy the waters further.

The discussions amongst my friends and family, both in the UK and US, have been those of disbelief, of sadness and of fear for the future. The one glimmer of hope came from an article entitled How do we tell the children which, being a 4th grade teacher and a parent of 2, was one of my major concerns of the campaign. The article is a call to arms to spread the messages of standing up to hate, fighting bigotry, how to engage in productive political discussions and how to build a united community. Among all the pain today, this article gave me hope that all is not lost.

My email signature reads "Every thousand mile journey begins with a single step". A student asked me today at school why I have this on every email I send him. My response to him felt even more pertinent today when I told him that every big change has to start somewhere, and it starts with one person making choices; choosing to unite instead of divide, choosing to teach acceptance over fear, and choosing love over hate. That person is me, and every person who out there feeling my pain. Together, we can do something to bring about a brighter tomorrow and we can start today.