I have had it. I'm fed up with this
year. We won't even talk about all the talented, loved figures who've
died this year. There are always deaths like that, but this year, we
were hit hard in this arena. Aside from the Angel of Death hovering
over our favorite writers, actors, musicians, and other artists, this
year has been downright ugly and mean—one could even say, nasty.
The election has thrown its grotesque,
sinister shadow over the entire year, dredging up thousands of people
who are happy to do and say—nay, shout—things that insult and
demean whole swathes of the citizenry—immigrants, women, Latinos,
Blacks, Muslims, Natives, people with disabilities, LGBTQIA people,
teachers, veterans, journalists, and just about every other segment
of society you can think of that isn't privileged White male. We've
had one candidate running who's made no secret of his admiration for
ruthless dictators and intention to become one himself and another
candidate who's faced accusation and investigation after accusation
and investigation, only to be repeatedly found innocent but tarred
with the constant scandals, and we've had a national media who've
falsely focused on those faux scandals while giving the would-be
dictator a pass and billions of dollars of free publicity.
Every day, we think we've seen a new
low in this election, surely the lowest it could ever go, only to
have a newer, lower low replace the old one in the next day or so.
We've watched Nazis, white nationalists, and the Ku Klux Klan roll
out from under the rocks beneath which they'd had to hide for decades
and parade openly with swastikas and Confederate flags in the
would-be dictator's rallies, unashamedly retweeted by him and his
campaign. The election has become a sickness infecting the entire
country.
Then, there are the extrajudicial
executions of people of color by modern, militarized police, the same
police that our would-be dictator intends to use as shock troops to
impose his will on the country, rounding up millions of people “from
the first hour of [his] presidency,” the same police who
enthusiastically endorse this man who openly brags about breaking
laws and disregarding our constitution.
Add to all this, the standoff at
Standing Rock, where Native nations from all over the United States
have gathered to protect the Missouri River and their own sacred
lands from destruction by a rapacious corporation. I have friends and
relatives with the Oceti Sakowin Water Protectors, who are being
attacked by dogs, pepper-sprayed, maced, teargassed, beaten, shot at,
dragged from ceremonies and sweat lodges, strip-searched in public
view, and caged, naked, in dog kennels by militarized police from
seven different states—sort of a preview of what many of us in this
country could expect at the hands of the would-be dictator if we're
foolish enough to give him that power over us. When young
students must throw themselves physically on
top of elders to protect their more fragile bodies and bones from
beatings with billy clubs and batons by men in law enforcement uniforms and combat gear, it seems the final straw in an
ugly, hateful year.
The election will be over in a couple
of days, and I hope and pray that the majority of voters in this land
prove themselves to be sane and decent. But that will not do anything
about the many others who have proved not to be either. As a country,
we'll still have to deal with them, especially since they talk loudly
about riots and violence if their dictator doesn't get the chance to
rule us all. We'll still be dealing with militarized police who act
like an occupying army in their own country. (I've had combat vets
tell me they never rolled out in Afghanistan or even Fallujah in all
the equipment these guys are using against their own citizens.) My
relations will still be standing firm and peacefully as they're
attacked, humiliated, and caged out in North Dakota. I want all of
this nightmare to be over with the election, but I know it won't be.
2016, hateful year that it's been, seems determined to carry on its
ugliness and hate into 2017.
Against this, I try to impose the facts
that my husband and I are happier than we've ever been in our own
private life, even as the public world seems more dangerous to us
and more frightening, that I've come through a dark, physically
threatening personal ordeal and am heading back to normal, that I
have so many wonderful friends of all colors, races, ethnicities,
classes, religions, and all other backgrounds who believe in the same
love and tolerance that I do, that I do believe—in the long
run—goodness, love, truth, and justice eventually triumph over hate
and bigotry (though I fear that sometimes the long run is awfully
long), that there are an awful lot of us working to bring decency and
equality back into our public sphere.
2016, you've made it downright hard to
remember these good truths, but I keep reasserting them against your
miserable meanness. I can hardly wait to see your backside, nasty
year. Good riddance, even though we won't be rid of most of your
pestilent detritus. But it won't be the first time in this country's
history that we've had a big moral cleanup job to face after a
horrible paroxysm, i.e., mass deportations of citizens of Mexican
descent in the 1930s, the camps for Japanese-Americans in the 1940s,
the McCarthyism of the 1950s, the violent segregationists of the
1960s, and more before and after those. Every so often, the worst
this country contains comes out publicly. Then, the good, decent
folks, who usually spend their time quietly minding their own
business, have to come out and clean house—and then work hard to
mop up the resulting mess. But we always do. I remind myself of that.
2016, you've done your worst, and it's
been pretty bad, but we decent folks of the U.S. are coming after you
finally. We've had enough, and we're bringing our brooms, mops, and
disinfectants with us. Your time has finally come.
No comments:
Post a Comment