Thoughts after cheeto's first week.

It's been one week and our country has already gone to shit. Protests on an international scale happened for the second weekend in a row, and based on my upcoming Facebook events list, they will continue for at least a third weekend too. This is what the people wanted. No, scratch that--this is what less than half of the people wanted, but our winner-takes-all electoral voting system distorted that.

I am angry. I am embarrassed. I am hurt. With each day that passes, I am newly shocked by the next executive order.

I never took any of his campaign promises seriously because I thought he had no chance of winning. And even if he did win, I thought there was no chance that his promised shit could happen. I had dismissed it. So the fact that it's actually happening hits me with fresh shock.

I didn't go to the airport protests. Partially because I was sick. But I realized that I felt no urgency to go. The racist-religious immigrant ban does not cut me in the same way that it does, say, one of my Cal Performances coworkers who came from Iran to study at Berkeley. I do not feel the same pain that she does, knowing that she cannot both return to her home and make it back to her job and mother here in the States.

I do not feel the pain of those who aspire to work in public office. Their career goals and desire to serve may be shattered because of the federal hiring freeze. I do not feel the pain of families straddling the Mexican-American border. They may be forever torn apart by a physical southern wall. I do not feel the pain of sexual assault survivors. One of their perpetrators has been promoted to the highest office possible in this country.

Whatever the name of the higher power is, please give me empathy.

I cringe watching our their* our** leader speak using a fifth-grade level vocabulary. I cringe at the lack of selflessness exhibited by a public servant. I cringe hearing him refer to us as "the gays". I cringe thinking that so many people thought that this inexperienced, boorish man was a better choice than the qualified, diplomatic woman.

Maybe that's a good place for me to start to find empathy.



*#notmypresident
**Dammit, we're in this together.