Good Riddance and Welcome

2016 ended with unexpected horror.

Come January 20, President (not) Elect(ed by the people) Trump will be moving (maybe) from his Tower in NYC to the Oval Office in DC. Let us hope his hands are too small to reach the important buttons. 

I sent a letter to the Obama family, thanking them for their tenure in the Whitehouse and service to our country. I told them, I wish third terms were still applicable. I'd vote them in again.

Come January 20, I may be sitting shiva for the death of democracy as we know it.

Come January 20, I definitely will be sitting in watchful vigil that no harm come to this country from within or from without.

Democracy works like Twelve Step Programs: It only works when you work it! 

Complacency and being asleep could sound our death knell. 

When a frog is put into boiling water, it jumps OUT, immediately. If a frog is put into cool water and the fire is turned up slowly, the frog doesn't recognize, until it is too late, that it should have jumped out, and it dies. Too lethargic to leap.

Unless we stay awake and vigilant...

I fear for our country. I fear for the world. I fear for the disenfranchised, the systematically marginalized, the downtrodden, the ones who look different from the Great White Male: Trumpkin.  I fear for all women, for sisters and brothers who are LGBT, for colorful sisters and brothers who are already being bullied because of the example set out from the bully pulpit of the president elect. I fear for brothers and sisters who worship in ways that may also attract bullies who think there is only one way to worship: their way. 

I wish everyone, especially those in offices of leadership, would watch Ava DuVeray's 13th.

I hope for the best. I hope for peace on the planet, and dignity for all Earth's children. I hope for a concerted effort in turning down the temperature of Mama Earth - starting with minimizing my own consumption of energy and with checking its source. 

I grieve the loss of sanity. I grieve the loss of cooler heads and a steady hand at the rudder steering this ungainly ship called US.

I hold dear the invitation from President Theodore Roosevelt. He said,

"The President is merely the most important among a large number of public servants. He should be supported or opposed exactly to the degree which is warranted by his good conduct or bad conduct, his efficiency or inefficiency in rendering loyal, able, and disinterested service to the nation as a whole. Therefore it is absolutely necessary that there should be full liberty to tell the truth about his acts, and this means that it is exactly as necessary to blame him when he does wrong as to praise him when he does right. Any other attitude in an American citizen is both base and servile. 

To announce that there must be no criticism of the President, or that we are to stand by the President, right or wrong, is not only unpatriotic and servile, but is morally treasonable to the American public. Nothing but the truth should be spoken about him or any one else. But it is even more important to tell the truth, pleasant or unpleasant, about him than about any one else.”

(Itallics, mine.)

The only update I’d offer is to include “she” and “her.”

I welcome 2017 as a call to a new beginning of re-creating our democracy from the bottom up. Grass and tree roots, family roots, hair roots, teeth roots. Weeding out what does not belong is as important as planting what we wish to grow.

May we sow the seeds of kindness, compassion, joy, and love. Lofty goals? Yes. Doable? Only if we work it.

May 2017 be kind and inviting to you.