Resilience and Forbearance

I used to take a modicum of pride in the levels of my resilience and forbearance. But the older I get, the less likely I seem able to shake off the dread that Make America Great Again (gag!) casts into the air nearly everywhere I look.

 

Here’s a prime example:

 

I went to Upwork this morning to look for writing projects. I spotted one that looked promising, until I got to the bottom of it where the poster added, “If you’re anti-Trump I consider you liberal and anti-American. Don’t bother submitting a quote.”

 

Liberals and Social Justice Warriors Need Not Apply

 

Now, on the one hand, I’m beyond grateful that he posted that little addendum, because no way in hell will I consciously serve people who feel this away about other Americans who disagree with them politically.

 

I understand disagreeing with policies, but when it comes to blind nationalism, racism, misogyny and other Trumpian beliefs, you can count me as an active opponent.

 

Before this happened earlier this morning,  I was in bed owning and grieving over my sense of despair, thinking how DONE I am with this mean-spirited world. But then I realized that I was focusing on what was bothering me, so I ended the pity party and got up to look for work, because I love writing…

 

and up pops this project!

 

And I thought, I can’t even get away from it when I’m looking for work!

 

And that’s when it hit me: I would never make it in America as a black citizen. They’ve had to put up with Trump types for their entire history in this nation.

 

I simply don’t know how they do it…or why!  If I were among them, I’d be looking for friendlier shores (which is, of course, exactly what the Trumps of the world want them to do, so I salute those who stay! You’re a better man/woman than I am!)

 

Hell, I’M actively looking for friendlier shores…and I’m white!

 

I grew up in a very white bread world–the Pacific NW of the 1950’s and 60’s. The racism here wasn’t palpable back then simply because there were so few black people around to bring it mind. So I was never exposed to anti-black rhetoric. (Thank you, Mom and Dad and schoolmates!)

 

In fact, my first introduction to black people was in the Lutheran church I attended as a child. My Sunday School teacher was a black woman, and her son Walter was also in my class.

 

These were lovely people!

 

So I was appalled when our home television showed me images of black people being set upon in the streets with billy clubs, fire hoses and police dogs. I asked my mom, in horror, “What country is that where this is happening?”

 

When she told me it was my country, I was floored…appalled…flabbergasted.

 

From that moment on, I became a  Social Justice Warrior. I wanted to make right what was wrong. I wanted to change what needed changing so all Americans would have equal justice and opportunity under the laws of our land.

 

And here we are 60 years later still fighting the same blind hatred and fear–not only of black people, but of brown, yellow and red people, and of women, and of LGBTQI folks and other marginalized people who simply want the same things all Americans want: equal justice, rights and opportunities under the law.

 

Toward the end of her life, my dear mother sighed, “I’m getting too old for this world.”

 

I guess that’s where I am now.

 

Mark Twain said, “People call me a pessimist in my old age,  but I’m not. I am an optimist–who did not arrive.”

 

Eggs-ack-ly!

 

I don ‘t know how we can have fallen this low just after electing (twice!) the first black President of the United States, a smart, scandal-free, honorable gentleman/husband/father/statesman who served us commendably. Obviously the racists in the nation took President Obama’s ascension to the highest office in the land as a threat to their pernicious paradigm of white male supremacy and decided to do everything possible to counteract it. Here’s looking at you, Mitch McConnell, Paul Ryan and the other GOP operatives in that infamous meeting the night Obama became President.)

 

And down we went into the slippery, fetid pig sty, grappling with whose vision of America is the “right” one.

 

Yeah, I know–white landowners rigged the scales from day one. But they also made some changes along the way in efforts to create “a more perfect union”–and this sure ain’t it, from where I sit.

 

I’d be a terrible black person; I’d probably end up getting myself killed or incarcerated for getting up in some white racist’s face and telling him off–or committing suicide, or moving away.

 

BUT AGAIN, THAT’S WHAT WHITE SUPREMACISTS WANT!

 

AND TO THAT I SAY, OH HELL NO!

 

“This land was made for you AND me!”

 

America isn’t a “my way or the highway” proposition.  We’re all in the same boat. Whoever kicks holes in it drowns all of us.

 

And just to be clear, I do screen my clients. My Upwork profile page states (and has stated ever since Trump became President), “My Values: Infinite Diversity in Infinite Combinations. Social Justice Warrior. LGBTQI Advocate.”

 

I serve all Americans who believe that America is enriched by diversity and all people of good will.