I can't do it today. I just can't. I can't write about any outrage today as it it were an aberration, when outrages are going to become are already starting to become the norm. If you want to see what Alecto ("unceasing"), Megaera ("grudging"), and Tisiphone ("vengeful destruction") look like when it has become too much even for them, just look at the picture.
Here is just a small sample of what is already happening (from an email from Moms Rising):
•In Illinois, White university students put on blackface and posed in front of a Confederate Flag to celebrate Trump’s victory.
•In Philadelphia, vandals scrawled Nazi and pro-Trump messages in city neighborhoods.
•In Kansas, a high school suspended two White boys wearing Trump shirts for ripping a hijab off a fellow student. When asked why they did it, one boy answered, “Because she’s about to get kicked out anyway and we won.”
*In Delaware, a Black woman filling her gas tank was approached by a group of four White men. One said to her, “How scared are you, you black b****? I should just kill you right now, you’re a waste of air.” Another showed her his firearm and said, “You’re lucky there’s witnesses or else I’d shoot you right here.”
•In California, a young woman was approached by an older man who said, “I can’t wait until Trump asks us to rape your people and send you back over the biggest damn wall we’re going to build. Go back to hell, wet back.”
•Also in California, a gay man at a bar was approached by a group of men who shouted at him, “We got a new President you f***ing f****ts," before assaulting him in a nearby alley.
•Educators from across the country are reporting rising levels of anxiety and fear among their students of color. In Utah, two parents reported seeing two kindergartners tell a Hispanic classmate that he would be going back to Mexico after Trump’s victory.
Yes, a lot of this was going on before the election. But somehow, now it seems to have a new – authority.
This from ExPat Girl at Daily Kos:
Fascism just got hold of the United States. We are now seeing the worst of the worst elevated to positions of incredible power. Racism has been legitimized and the reports of hate crimes are rolling in. Trans children are committing suicide. Stock prices of private prisons and coal have skyrocketed. Women are months away from truly losing the right to control their own bodies. Marriage equality is under attack. The safety net is about to be destroyed. Hard won
progress on climate change is about to go down the toilet. We are about to lose all regulations on the financial industry. Millions are terrified of being rounded up for deportation. Muslims are facing honest to God persecution. We’ve gotten confirmation that the world’s most powerful dictator manipulated our election to get the result he wanted. Our allies in Europe are freaking out. Intelligence from the Middle East indicates that al-Qaeda and ISIS are over the moon with joy.
And the majority of the people here are refighting the primary war? Ignoring the terror of huge swaths of America to gloat? Dreaming of how this is all going to work out for them in the future?
Can people really be this stupid as to what is happening ? This blind to what is coming down the road?
I quoted John Pavlovitz last week. I'd like to quote him again now, as he addresses people who don't understand:
This is not about losing an election. This isn't about not winning a contest. This is about two very different views of the world.
Hillary supporters believe in a diverse America; one where religion or skin color or sexual oriantation or place of birth aren't liabilities or deficiencies or moral defects. Her campaign was one of inclusion and connection and interdependency. It was about building bridges and breaking ceilings. It was about going high.
Trump supporters believe in a very selective America; one that is largely white and straight and Christian, and the voting verified this. Donald Trump has never made any assertions otherwise. He ran a campaign of fear and exclusion and isolation – and that's the vision of the world those who voted for him have endorsed.
Every horrible thing Donald Trump ever said … has now been validated.
Every … call to bully protesters … and every ignorant diatribe has been endorsed.
Every piece of anti-LGBTQ legislation … has been signed-off on.Half our country has declared these things acceptable, noble, American.
And this is why we grieve.
(This is only a summary. Click through for the whole piece. Skip the comments though.)
Oh, the Furies and I will be back. Eventually. But all four of us need some down time right now.
Cross posted to Care2 at http://www.care2.com/news/member/101612212/4020659
5 Responses to “The Furies Are Weeping”
Sorry, the comment form is closed at this time.
This just makes me cry. If you don't mind, I'm passing this whole article to friends. It's a cluster…and here in red Texas, I'm seeing and feeling the fear. Kindness and compassion has gone out the window….and it's not going to get better, only worse. As a senior, I'm okay, but it's the children in school(s), and the mentality of those that support and elicit violence on behalf of this President elect who are stoking these fears. One of my neighbors had her car egged the other night, she had a HC sticker on her car. She's my age. I feel a great sadness at the way events are happening, and yes, I wring my hands and sob at the injustices with Lady Liberty holding her head in grief. We are now on the roller coaster and heading towards the brink of a new Administration. I can only hope, and pray that we, as a Nation can rise up, and stand proud for who we are, with equality and mercy for all.
Thanks, Joanne for your heartfelt words.
Sad about yor neighbor whose car was egged, even though it good she wasn't hurt. A fellow in Daily Kos who had his car egged for the same reason relatiated with a (I think home made) sign:
Democrats
Cleaning up Republican messes
Since 1968
Thank you, Pat, for your heartfelt words as well.
OMFG indeed, Joanne. I weep with you and the Furies and with all who feel "It isn’t a political defeat that we’re lamenting, it’s a defeat for Humanity" (John Pavlovitz). Your list of what is already happening is disgusting, but above all worrying me to the core. I've seen lists of happenings like this after Brexit too and, as I've said before, it brings back my Jewish mother's nightmare stories.
ExPatGirl expresses it so eloquently. I myself am getting to the point where I feel revulsion when people here say we have to respect the choices the American people have made, that we have to accept what they've voted for. The same thing was said here when Adolf Hitler, Benito Mussolini and Francisco Franco came to power, but that was soon forgotten when they, and the people who brought them to power, showed their true faces.
I feel revulsion when Drumpf voters atone that they've voted for him while knowing he's a bigoted, racist, xenophobic, misogynist, anti-Muslim, ant-Semitic, homophobic, attention craving, filthy rich businessman and didn't like any of these traits of course, because they're really good people themselves. But he promises to bring change, so all the rest doesn't matter. And now the rest of America needs to give him a chance.
I need to stop, I feel my bile rising.
I quite understand that you and the Furies need time to regroup, Joanne. I need some time off too.
JD, you expreess my feelings so well! I've used the word horror a lot in the last couple days. It will become a staple of myvocabulary, because Fuhrer Drumphenfrarten couls tell his goose-stepping thugs to stop, but he remains silent.
This is true INSANITY! I will post a longer article later today that has even more of these travesties than those mentioned in Moms Rising. As I read them, I became angry and angrier, then I began to weep. Each one of the perpetrators should be thrown in jail and the key tossed away.
Povlovitz talks about one America that is heartless, cruel, mindless and self-centred — the America for whom Trump has opened a window, and another America that holds with dignity, nobility, decency and mercy. But was Trump has wrought goes beyond the borders of the US. "It isn’t a political defeat that we’re lamenting, it’s a defeat for Humanity." The effect of Trump will be felt globally. A nation is known and judged by its leadership. The new leadership has lost its moral compass, if it ever had one.