After the End

Prior to the presidential election, I spent hours on the internet, checking the recent Youtubes, the latest stories, the current updates about the polls, hoping that, as Kamala Harris and Tim Walz would win the nation’s favor. I couldn’t believe that anyone would vote for Donald Trump. His foul language, his name calling, his threats to opponents, his racists and sexists comments–all of them disqualified him. Yet he won. Not only did he win, but he won by momumental amounts. What I had to come to terms with was how that could happen. What I know will happen is that with Project 2025 he will systematically dismantle democracy. He will curtail the ability of the Justice Department to act impartially. He will gut the Department of Education. He will eliminate the Environmental initiatives to prevent climate change. He will limit voting rights. He will usurp women’s rights to choose. He will eliminate career professionals in all the federal departments who have the ability to act in the best interest of their department and replace them with ill-informed lackeys loyal to him. He will take back the civil rights LGBTQ people. While he does it, he will have daily and weekly tantrums when anyone dares to oppose him. It will be like Nazi Germany under Hitler. A pack of self-righteous men, mostly white men, who look like Trump and could be members of his golf club, will determine what is best for the nation. Over half the nation voted him in because they thought he was a strongman and that he could, by his superpowers, force the economy and anyone who opposed him to obey him and run efficiently just as railroads under Hitler ran on time while Jews, LGBTQ persons, and opponents were just as efficiently put in concentrations camps. To survive this coming dark ages, I made a vow to stop watching the news which feeds off of him and his absurdities and generate drama by fostering he said/they said to promote its news. Instead, I will hear about his vile statements from whom wants to tell me, and I will write each day, or as many days as I can, reflecting on art, life as I am able to live it, and ideas that come to me from my daily life. I don’t imagine that it will be of any great matter. But it will not be part of the political drama. It will not be lies. It will not be conspiracies theories. Instead, it will be reflections on poetry, novels, essays, and history. To what end? To keep me faithful in this world that seems to have come to an end. And to keep sane in a world that has seemingly gone mad. If you care to respond as I get this life saver going, you are welcome to do so. Maybe we can make a community of those wanting to be true to ourselves and to block out the voice of the petty tyrant who will become our new president.