trump

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Willfully Ignorant

I recently had a conversation with someone whom I know to be kind, intelligent and well-informed. They admitted they purposely have not read, watched or listened to any kind of news since before the November election. Their physical and mental health was tremendously better.

I was speechless. Then angry. Fucking dumbfounded.

Since then I’ve talked to friends asking what they thought about this. Hell, I even talked to my therapist about it. I understand wanting to save yourself, wanting to be ok. But in this case? I don’t think that’s enough of a reason to not wanting to know what’s happening.

Let’s say you have every privilege there is: your skin color, your gender, your sexual orientation, your financial status, your mobility, your education, your employment status. You got it all. But you don’t want to know what’s happening in the world, in our country that we currently live in? Because it’s going to make you angry or sad? Big fucking deal. Grow a pair of ovaries and step the fuck up.

Will you be one of those that stand by while trucks of your fellow countrymen are carted off to the camps? Will you be one of the people that helps load that truck? Or will you speak out before that can happen?

EDUCATE YOURSELF. Look, there is a shit ton of info out there and I have had to pare down what’s coming at me, too. There’s too much of it. I personally get most of my information from a few sources, first being Heather Cox Richardson. She blogs daily, Letters from an American. She’s a historian and originally from Maine. She tells you what’s happening in the political world and puts it into historical context. I read Robert Reich’s Substack posts because they often give tips on how to fight back but also throws in positive news, even if it doesn’t seem like it. Reich is a professor and former US Secretary of Labor under Clinton. I get the New York Times headlines and will read some of the articles. Lastly, I’ll watch a few minutes from CBS news, mostly to yell at the screen and tell them that the death of an actor or the winning of a sports team should NOT be the first headline in any news day when fascists are trying to ruin the country.

If you like, I am happy to give you a bulleted list each day of the bullshit that’s happening. Then maybe your ears won’t get full of fleas and spiders. If you stick your head too far down into the sand, things can get ugly.

Let’s start! Here’s a very brief list of some of the shit that’s happened in the last month.

  • Trump pardoned all the people involved during the January 6th insurrection, including those that assaulted police officers.
  • All references to transgender folks have been removed from the Stonewall National Monument website. Someone forgot to tell Trump that you can’t spell history without the T.
  • Social Security and Medicaid are being raped & pillaged. Hope you weren’t counting on any of that. Oh, but, your neighbors already are.
  • Elon Musk is really running the show, along with a bunch of other rich dicks. He’s responsible for cutting a bunch of federal jobs. You might know someone who lost their job recently. No? Don’t worry. You will.
  • Congress isn’t doing their job. They are just as much to blame for this catastrophe as Trump and Musk. Feel free to call them (202-224-3121) or email your Congress people.
  • And then this. Watch it. It is tremendously upsetting. I sobbed and yelled and nearly vomited. Why? Well in case you don’t have the stomach to watch it, here’s what happened. At a Republican-hosted legislative town hall in Idaho, several people shouted “Women are dying” in response to a comment about Roe v Wade. The man at the podium called the people’s remarks “stupid” and called the people “crazy.” So others started yelling, “Is this a town hall or a lecture?” Teresa Borrenpohl was one of the women speaking out. She was dragged from the audience by men in plain clothing, who refused to say who they were. Meanwhile, the asshat at the podium is ridiculing her. AND MOST PEOPLE JUST WATCHED IT HAPPEN.

So…what do you think? Are you angry? Sad? Pissed at me because you feel I have no reason to be mad at you? You’re just one person trying to take care of yourself, trying to live a quiet, decent life, right? Trying to be a good person.

So were Edith & Otto Frank. Look how that turned out.

Here’s the thing: You don’t have to go out and protest if you don’t want to or if you are working too many hours or have other responsiblities that take up most of your time. Trust me. I do understand that.

Do one of these instead:

  • Send an email to (or call) your local and state Representatives and Senators. Tell them what you don’t like and what you wish they’d do.
  • Stop buying from companies that are giving money to Trump and his oligarchy and buy locally from businesses that you know support human rights.
  • Give money to organizations that are helping feed or house folks that can’t afford to.
  • Make a sign and put it in your house or car window. Let people know you support LGBTQ+ rights and that LGBTQ+ folks matter.
  • Or please, just educate yourself. I’m serious about sending you a daily email if you want me to.

We need you.

You’re better than an ostrich. I mean, ostriches are really cool and I’m a fan of long necks myself, but as a human? You’re better than that. So please, do better.

The future depends on it.

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Just. Stop.

For two months this summer, I read books about gender, race and justice. Or rather injustice. I read about Latasha Harlins, the 15- year-old African-American girl who was shot in the back of the head by Soon Ja Du, a Korean-American store owner back in 1991. Du received a fine, community service and probation. This crime was one of the causes of the 1992 Los Angeles riots.

I read about Ed Johnson, an African-American man accused of raping a white woman in 1906. Although no evidence pointed to Johnson, he was still convicted by an all white jury. His lawyers took the case to the Supreme Court to get a stay of execution and it was granted. Yet the folks of Chattanooga, Tennessee didn’t like that, so they broke him from jail, hanged him and shot his body over and over. In 1909, one of his lawyers, Noah Parden said this: “We are at a time when many of our people have abandoned the respect for the rule of law due to the racial hatred deep in their hearts and souls, and nothing less than our civilized society is at stake.”

While I was reading about 20th century cases of American black citizens being killed by (usually) white American citizens, I would turn on the news or look at the newspaper and see the headline, “Black man killed by white police officer in [fill in the blank]”. Minnesota, Florida, Louisiana.

Stop_sign(standard)

And then, of course, there’s social media. That’s when you see people you thought you knew, say hateful things about people they don’t know. “They were trash and didn’t deserve to live anyway. The police did us a favor.”  I’m paraphrasing here, but that is the gist of what someone I know said on her Facebook account after two black men were killed by police officers earlier in the summer. These were men she didn’t know. She had never met them, talked with them or knew anything about them except they “deserved to die.”

But I never said one word to this “friend.” She doesn’t live near me now anyways, so does it matter?

Of course it does.

Which is why, today, when I heard someone say a nasty hateful thing, I finally said something.

If you live in Maine (or probably anywhere else in the country), you’ve heard about what Governor LePage said to a state representative. Or many of the other hateful things our governor has said in his years in office. Neither civility nor civil discourse appears to be in the governor’s vocabulary. So when I saw a man walking down the street this morning, with “LePage sucks” painted on his bare back and carrying a large board with several signs on it, I thought, “Huh. This could be interesting.” I was taking a quick walk before work and stopped across the street from the man, so I could read his signs. I still have no idea what they said, although some of it was quoting from LePage’s original remarks to the state representative. But this man seemed to be expressing his freedom to speak, so I gave him a thumbs up and kept walking. And then he yelled, “Vote for Trump!”

I stopped. I sighed. I glanced back at him and honestly, my shoulders slumped a bit. For one moment, I thought this person, mentally ill or not, may have had something intelligent or at least worthy to say. But I had to remind myself that he still, in fact, has the freedom of speech, so let him be.  There was a lot of inner dialogue going on there for a few seconds, but I didn’t want to be like what my friend Diane said, “Everybody supports freedom of speech until they disagree with the message.” So I finally shook it off and kept walking.

But then the man said, “If Hillary is elected, it will be just as bad as having that nigger we’ve had for the past 8 years!”

Oh. No. You. Didn’t.

All that flashed in my mind was those awful things my “friend” had said in her Facebook post and how I didn’t say anything. There was no way in hell I was going to let someone call OUR President (or any other person!) such a foul, dirty, hate-filled word like that.

Unfortunately though? I replied like a damn school marm.

“Nigger?!? That was completely uncalled for,” I shouted. Then I  yelled with all I had, “STOP THE HATRED!”

The man continued to rant but I left and angrily stuck my buds into my ears and kept walking.

I know. Can you believe I said that? First, having to say the N-word makes me want to hurl. It’s very much like saying the F-word….and that’s faggot. Not fuck. Fuck is a good word and has several good connotations. Not so with fag or faggot. Most people only use it to spew more hatred and ignorance.

Second, why didn’t I say something else? Why didn’t I call him a nasty name or even to go fuck himself? Would that have felt better?

But…maybe I was just sick of all the name calling and the exhaustion of hating, hating, hating. I want people to listen to one another. I want people to learn empathy and just TRY to walk in someone else’s shoes. You do not know what other people go through. You don’t know their struggles or their triumphs. You don’t know what keeps them up at night or what makes them laugh out loud. You don’t know because you either don’t care or you don’t listen. Why?

I am just so tired of the bickering, the yelling, the hating, the shootings, the dying.

When will we start listening and loving and laughing and living again?

I want to start right now.

Don’t you?