I Got A Lot To Be Mad About

 It took a reality star with bad manners to be voted into the White House for me to find my voice again.

For two years, I have been busy doing me: marriage, pet parenting, planting gardens and upgrading appliances, while watching the world from my little bubble. In the process, I placed my writing on the back burner of my new and shiny stainless steel range.

Then last Tuesday happened.

What
Fresh 
Hell
Is 
This?

I cannot be silent. I'm screaming because suffragists Sojourner Truth and Susan B. Anthony fought for me to have a voice.  I'm screaming for the residents in my city who found their Gay Pride flags burned on November 9th.  I'm screaming with Tarrah Laci White, who was assaulted with both racial slurs and chewing tobacco spit in a Walmart parking lot.

I'm still trying to understand how a win could result in so much hatred from the "winning" party.  It's like racists were given authorization to ignite fury.  I found myself mourning the election results on Wednesday, but that was quickly replaced with shock as reports of hate crimes and imagery flooded the media.  Disturbances that could have easily been chronicled stories told to me by my parents and grandparents.

Don't be fooled; racism has always been alive and well (I have had my own personal experiences to know).  But this election year has ripped the Band-Aid right off of it, spreading a nationwide cancer with no press conference, PSA or prescription to resolve it. The rest of the world is watching us unravel as The United States of America...

I was raised with the understanding that if you're mad, you act, NOT react.  Become the change you want to see.  I'm mad, but I'm not manic.  I choose love. And kindness.  Channeling to use my energy for good; volunteering to help those less fortunate is how I will be spending the holidays.

Here is the list of groups that Trump has offended that you can support through donations and the pledge to let discriminatory legislation know #WeWontGoBack.

I predict this holiday season, we women will be making a joyful noise, and we will NOT be using our inside voices.  There is strength in numbers, as Sojourner Truth so eloquently stated:

If the first woman God ever made was strong enough to turn the world upside down all alone, these women together ought to be able to turn it back, and get it right side up again!