To Smile, to Cry, to Dream, to Fear, or to HOPE!

I am sitting here early at the Fort Lauderdale airport as I have done a fair amount lately.  As Frank, Daisybelle and I drive up to the airport there is a billboard for the Gulfstream Park Stores... and it is for a wedding registry and the couple on the billboard as we approach the airport is two men looking to get married.  I smile and remind myself how lucky I am to live in Fort Lauderdale at a moment of uncertainty.

I fear, as I read on Facebook, that a gay male walking through Fort Lauderdale was taunted for being gay in a way that may have been shocking a week ago. That others are threatened, cars painted and some attacked and that could be me. A homeless person was holding up a sign looking for money, and someone shouts out the N word while telling them to get a job.  These hidden prejudices, are not new I am afraid, but what is new is that people feel emboldened to share them so freely.  Even though I hear from friends who vote for Trump, not to worry as they will protect me. 

I do fear that rights we felt were decided such as gay marriage, women's rights to choose, and anti-discrimination laws for all are more are under fire from those in this country who either for misguided religious reasons or for their own fear of change feel emboldened to fight.

I do have some odd hope, that Donald Trump since winning the election on such a hateful, prejudice discourse where Make America Great Again was so easy to change the word Great to white is seeming to be much more of a moderate than he ran.  Did he just do whatever he could to get elected and now he is going to go back to what were more moderate stands many years ago?  Is he more of the liberal that the conservative wing of the Republican Party feared all along?  So, I hope... and am mad that this is what I must hope for.

It scares me to hope that Donald Trump is not who he claimed to be.  It also scares me that he will be found guilty in of the many trials against him and either resign or be impeached because Todd Pence seems to be the real conservative, anti-gay, prejudiced person that I should fear.  If you believe the many press articles, I should be fearing Paul Ryan as well who I thought was a pragmatic politician who looks embolden as well to change Medicare and Social Security that so many senior citizens depend on.  It must be humbling, even for a man like Donald, to sit in the security briefings and realize the responsibility he has been elected to shoulder and in a strange way he owes nobody.  He can't be called a liar about what he said he would do, if he doesn't do it, because he lied about everything else through the campaign including those baseless hateful attacks on Hillary Clinton.

I have some more hope, that there will be more women in the senate than ever and hope that the republican women will cross the aisle on their right to consent on appointees and do all in their elected power to at least protect some of these fundamental rights we cherish.

I hope, as Gloria Steinem said in a recent column, that this is more of a last stand of the old hierarchy of white racist chauvinism and that we will see through the strength of the majority who did not vote for Donald Trump that we can stand up, be counted, and come out of these challenging times stronger.

I am sad, I think Hillary Clinton should have been treated better by the press, by the world, and with gratitude.  If I read one more post of people who said they voted for her even though they didn’t like or trust her, because they believed all the swill of news and comments by the conservative press, but she was the lesser of two evils, I may scream.  So, I am trying to read less and less of the election news.  These people who didn't read her policies, didn't listen to her speeches, didn't follow her past works on their behalf especially women and decided that all the smoke must mean there was fire make me madder than those that either chose on ideology or other reasons to vote for Donald.  You can decide to hate someone once you get to know them, or familiarize yourself with them, but to decide to hate them because of the press or people near you who show fear and hate of those unlike you make me truly sad this morning.

I do hope, and remember we do not have the kind of democracy that Britain or most other democracies have.  We have checks and balances all through the system and they start at home.  We have a city government here with protections for all minorities and Gay Vice Mayor.  We live in and near a town with a gay mayor, and aldermen that will stand with us.  I do worry about the Supreme court but even the most conservative of justices can surprise and do what is right and not just what is politically popular.  But, at the same time, I hear there is a bill moving through the Florida legislature to restrict access to abortion by mostly men who can never have an abortion any way. (ladies think about it!)

So, I sit here at the airport, ready to do what I do.  Ready to do what most Americans are doing, which is remind ourselves to get up, go to work, pet the dog and get on with our life.  But, I won't be sleeping at the wheel of life either.  I want to remind people that there are many of us who fear this new government, and there are many of us that are mad that Hillary won the popular vote and is not going to president.  I don't want the electoral college to be abolished, as it would put all the power of this country in the population centers of this country but don't be surprised that the majority is dare I say a little ticked off.  That we have a right to be afraid.  That women will continue to be sexually harassed at work, because it was deemed by the winner of the campaign as being acceptable.  That minorities will be afraid, because all the prejudice they already knew was there is acceptable to come to the surface and be shown to the population of the world.  That those of us who see global warming at full moons and rising waters over our streets are worried that those in power deny the effect of global warming.  I fear that the EPA will set back laws to reduce pollution, reduce our dependency on fossil fuels that accelerate global warming and improve our lives and the world will be handicapped by a new government who fears any regulations at all.

On the other hand, I do have hope, that companies see the value to their bottom line for improving fuel efficiency and their own dependency on scarce fossil fuels.  That companies, as they did in Todd Pence's Indiana, will stand back up to the government when it attempts to turn back the clock on discrimination and convince the government to at least maintain the status quo on such things.  I do have hope, that myself and others that were engaged in this last election, want to become more engaged and remember the power in each citizen to speak out for what is right, and to be willing to talk to people who don't share our point of view.

Finally, I will go with the side of hope today.  I have a great man in my life, a fabulous dog, a family that agrees with my political views above (ok mostly) and I don't have to fear going home for Thanksgiving and listening to more of what I hear on TV and read as I know many around me do.  And, when not traveling, I get to wake up walk on the beach and see the splendor of mother nature each morning, and walk to dinner with Frank and Miss Belle in a town and city I call home.