2016 Referendum

Still shocked beyond words, I cannot do anything but grieve for the country and the world.  I have read the prophetic words of so many friends on both sides of this chasm, but still that chasm remains.  Regardless of how one justifies the results of this horrible election, no matter what philosophical hopes we’ve rested, thinking that “sanctity of life” or “restoring America’s greatness” or bringing a flailing industrial complex back validates this awful decision, the reality remains that we, as a nation, chose to pin our hopes and dreams to the embodiment of xenophobic misogyny and hate.  Our collective conscience has extolled the manifestation of ignorance that so many of us have been running from, striving to rise above, our entire lives. 

A woman I encountered on the streets of Kathmandu, Nepal. 
Sex trafficking is rampant in the small nation

No matter how the policies play out.  No matter whether the reactionary agenda we heard so much about comes to fruition, we will have still made a powerful statement, a referendum that the inherent worth of women, minorities, religions, and diversity itself, is less important than perceived financial gain or maintaining a decaying, antiquated status quo. 



Friends in the Haitian town of Lejeune

I am humiliated at the message we have broadcast to the world.

I fear what this means for the health of our environment.  I've spent years working toward good public environmental policy, and striving for progress on assistance to those most in need.  However, as with all grief and loss, there are huge lessons we must embrace.   We must end our careless dismissiveness to the pain so many around us feel.  The elite, educated establishment has to ensure equal rights to good education, or populist anger will continue to spread to the farthest reaches of our amazing nation. 

Friends who died in Typhoon Yolanda,
the strongest typhoon ever recorded

We must listen, even when shrill voices spew awful words, we MUST listen between those staggered sentences to the pain of feeling forgotten.  We must listen no only to facts and reality, but feelings and a perceived intolerance.  We’ve been so focused on building the house and painting the lattice work, that we have neglected a fractured, seeping foundation.  We must listen.  Not to appease, or placate, but to win the war of ignorance and ensure a brighter future.  We owe it to the world.  As climate change blows stronger storms, so too should our fierce resilience to form unlikely coalitions.  There is way too much to lose if we continue to shut people out of conversations just because they don’t use the right grammar or share the same stories.  If we don’t take the energy of our grief right now, all of the anger at ourselves and those who didn’t turn out and vote, and redirect it for good, we’ll have lost an epic opportunity.  This country is was and is still great, and equality will win in the end, but only if we can see past our own insecurities and veiled stereotypes to continue crucial conversations. 

Remember that our lives are only notes in the world’s symphony.  Make this election a dissonant chord that will add to its richness.