This. This is Why I Fight.
I have a friend who lost her husband this year to a slow and painful death. She sent me this text message this morning.
I just stopped by a Veteran’s Day celebration in my neighborhood – Pecan Grove. There were a bunch of veterans there with their military hats on. I’m not sure if you’re aware of this but my husband John was a decorated Vietnam war veteran and he was a very staunch Democrat.
Part of the reason he died may – just may – have been because of his exposure to Agent Orange in Vietnam as well as Benzene products in the construction industry.
Although I think it is bad for people to do violent things in the protests that are occurring nationwide I think it is good in that a lot of people have the courage to say we will not stand for this man’s hateful rhetoric.
OK at the Veterans Day celebration our sheriff Troy Nehls, who goes to my church by the way, led the “service”. I have always liked him and thought he was a pretty good guy but I voted straight Dem ticket this year and I’m pretty vocal in my neighborhood so I’m sure that a lot of people at my church know that I’m a rabid Dem.
In this service Susan he thanked God for our new administration and he stated that he hopes God will forgive the demonstrators.
I had just put my hand over my heart and said the Pledge of Allegiance and listened to the national anthem alongside my neighbors with tears in my eyes thinking about my husband who was a veteran. When he said that God “needs to forgive the demonstrstors” I turned on my heels and walked away. Not particularly politically correct right?
I just feel this portends things to come. The religious right is going to be so judgmental of the Democrats. It was OK for them to call President Obama a Nazi, the N-word, a Socialist, accuse him of not being born in the United States, show unmitigated disrespect for him and our First Lady. Now that the Democrats are upset about the results of the election it’s not OK. It is the unbelievable hypocrisy of the alt right people.
I need to calm down I really need to calm down. I keep getting angry and sad off and on. I heard Elizabeth Warren last night on the Rachel Maddow Show and she said what we need to do is get active which is what I want to do so let me know how I can help Susan. OK I just had to get that off my chest to someone who would understand. I love you and Don and thank you from the bottom of my heart for all of your hard work!
Onward through the fog! (Name omitted)
My friend could not honor her veteran husband today. This is worth fighting for.
Exactly.
1Wow.
2I don’t know what my grandfather would have thought about this election. He spent WWII in Germany fighting against the very people now in power. 240 years of fighting for our freedom and we end up here. I feel ill.
3Well, that made me cry!! I am so sorry for your friend’s loss of her husband, and then to have that sheriff, someone who probably professes to be a Christian … well, he is NOT … to add that to a service honoring our Veterans … unbelievable!! Except, sadly, it is believable due to the SOB-elect’s mentality and the hate he has spewed!!
I’m glad she had the gumption to walk away and write to you!!
4Just wait until all those tRump voters find out what Paul Ryan’s planning for Medicare and SS. That’ll give THEM a reason to take to the streets.
5I drove by that ceremony this morning. Sadly, I’m not surprised by Sheriff Nehls. While there are many reasons I love living in Pecan Grove, one of the things I hate about it is how so many people here automatically assume everyone thinks the same way they do. One particularly egregious example was when I was at a high school event, a graduation fundraiser; not only did they open the program with a Christian prayer (at the very diverse multicultural school), but the student body president, a Hindu girl, had to read it. Cringeworthy, but nobody I knew had the slightest inkling that that might be inappropriate.
6I promise that I will NOT just turn and walk away.
I promise I WILL call someone out when they’re insensitive.
If they continue their behavior, I WILL raise all hell.
7Jill Ann, if I had been that girl, I might have read the Christian prayer they handed me, and followed it with a Hindu prayer of my own. But not every person, especially a kid in a room full of adults, can face them down. As Tawanda said in “Fried Green Tomatoes,” I’m older and I’ve got more insurance.
That’s one of the chief beauties of the left, when we’re doing it right (not always): we know that people are different, and we don’t assume that everybody is just like us. We’ve got to show them we’re different, folks. Let your freak flags fly, and point out when necessary that we don’t all think or act in lockstep. But let them act differently too, if you happen to be the local majority.
8Susan, there are no words for what I feel for your friend, except, “I’m sorry.”
9My friend could not honor her veteran husband today.
Are you kidding me? When she posted that she walked out, she made my Veteran’s Day!
10People are now wearing large safety pins to show they are against the Trumpites’ bigotry and misogyny. I’m keeping my Clinton sign up on my front door and I will get the largest darn safety pin I can find. Little things, I know, but I plan to look for more ways to show dissent.
11I’m sorry for your friends/your loss.
I’m glad I voted for Bernie, and then Hillary. I believed in their capability and in the vision of what they tried to accomplish. That won’t change.
Onwards and upwards!
12Funny how Republicans feel free to criticize what others say, while claiming that any criticism of how they speak infringes on their free speech rights. Shall we start asking them to show their PC Police badges?
13I have felt a compelling urge, or need, to return my widows flag to Ft Snelling National Cemetery, and say “this no longer is my country, and definitely it would not have been his.”
14A tip of the hat to all veterans today. I have a feeling that in the near future we will be required to Kiss mangled apricot’s ass instead of revering veterans.
15Shame and shun. Be bright and sunny. Say it with a smile.
16I read about the safety pin thing today. It started in Britain in response to the Brexit mess. Discrimination against non white people in England began almost immediately. Others started wearing “safety” pins in support. “Safety,” get it? I saw some folks wearing safety pins today and I’ll be doing the same beginning tomorrow.
Another tool I will use is the American flag. I’m going to get a flag bumper sticker and put it on —– upside down, the sign for distress. Maybe I’ll get a lapel flag pin and wear it upside down too.
Whenever the Cheetoh-faced Ferret-wearing Shitgibbon Cocksplat does something right, probably inopportune, I will support it. The rest of the time, fark him and anything even vaguely connected to him and his Russian butt buddies.
17Might I remind everyone we do not have a new president. We have a President and a new guy who has won the title. What he does in the next 4 years will determine whether or not he is The President. It promises to be an interesting ride.
As far as “fighting” goes, there are times to step back and let the others make complete asses of themselves. The Rs have spent 8 years complaining. Now… they must govern. As they say in the theater, “Your on!” It’s curtain up, folks. Let’s see how well they perform.
18Off topic but here goes.
Of course we’ve posted of our concerns for our non-white or non-Christian friends and family over the next few days-months-years. Now on to collateral damage.
My best friend since middle school, my brother, Aggie, Marine, pilot, idiot, called me out the morning after the election. It got real human over the phone and by email over the next few hours. Maybe I’ll eventually want that to heal. Not now.
A co-worker, since 1990. This morning. He was dancing in the hall. I wasnt yet angry but in a teasing way I asked “practicing your goose step for the inauguration?” It went downhill pretty quick from there. My daughter was appalled when I shared with her. I guess I ap-lo-gize Monday. Fortunately I haven’t anything project-wise in his silo right now and my retirement should happen by 12/25.
Those were the most memorable.
Scorching the earth.
I spent an hour deleting post-election texts and deleting some of the senders’ contact information. Same for emails and contacts.
I’m looking for a website that lists goods and services produced by those who supported the president-elect and his party. I won’t support them with my hard earned dollars.
19JAK, I am at your side, 100%! Let this play out in Congress, Trump will lose all his support soon enough. Congress may think they’ve got the world by the balls, but they don’t. Trump’s supporters will castrate him if he wavers, and waver he will. Expect impeachment before the mid-terms.
20Charles, just left a site where the professor who predicted Trump’s victory (he’s been right about his predictions for years) is now predicting that he will be impeached by Congress before his term is up. I am almost breathing better right now.
21Charles: I’m not sure I agree with how you put it. I’m of the opinion that alot of big talk was said to get the nomination and the presidency. Now, someone has to deliver on those words. The delight will be in seeing that they can’t. The further delight will be those supporter’s dismay when he doesn’t and the slow dawning of realization that he wasn’t an “outsider” after all. Just a bullshitter like everybody said.
22JAK, same crap, different day. He can’t focus on governing because there’s no profit in it. The repubs on the hill will find he’s unreliable and will attempt to rein him in. This will drive him further along the Nutball Trail. He will, sooner or later, do something that will jeopardize their majority. At that point, they will pull out the impeachment tool and smack him with it. It’s what they know, it’s what they do. I’m certain that the dems in Congress will help by goading him.
23God is WITH the demonstrators. She let me know. Your local sheriff got this all wrong.
24I, too, am looking for solace.
Thank you.
25I am so tired of being told people wouldn’t vote for my husband (he won his county Commission race, by the way…we are a small blue island in a sea of red) because he’s not a Christian….because we are Democrats and we don’t go to the big Baptist church out in the county. We go to a small church that works with the homeless and Latinos and doesn’t tell folks how to vote, and supports the Separation of Church and State.
26Today’s Houston Chronicle has a story that choked me up a little bit. 19 year old guy is interviewing surviving WW II veterans. Really good piece.
27Have been putting up with that kind of crap ever since I moved to Austin County Texas which voted 78% Trump. I’m an atheist sometime agnostic and only my closest friends know that. These knuckle draggers don’t think Catholics are Christians and wouldn’t let the Latter Day Saints volunteer for the Sealy Christian Food Pantry. I figured the haters would burn me at the stake (figuratively) if they knew i’m a non-believer.
28Kudos Debbo and Micr
onward thru the fog is associated with “oat willie” in the 1960’s here in austin
29I’m sorry for your friend. We may all be having that moment that one thing makes us snap. I snapped Wednesday when I saw a post on Facebook that essentially said “F**k you, Clinton voters (sorry, Mama). I have been very restrained on Facebook politically, but no more. What has truly exhausted me is the “kumbaya can’t we all just get along Trumpslainin” posts. No. Not now, maybe never. Don’t tell me you voted for that man, but you’re really not a racist or bigot or misogynistic butbutbut change jibber jabber emailzbenghazibadBill because I’m not buying it. You own him, period. I had to put up with their hate Obama nonsense for 8 years, so now you get to see how it feels.
30@Opinionated Hussy#26-You probably appreciate the fact that Thomas Jefferson’s letter advising absolute separation of church and state was addressed to the congregation of a Baptist church.Wingnutters cannot seem to ever recall that letter, no matter how much they invoke Jefferson as the spiritual forebear of their movement, and quote him whenever they find a quote that supports their present position.
31I kind of lost it this morning when a young relative (a sweetheart mother of 3 and who is kind to elderly relatives) re-posted a meme reading “I lived through Obama, You’ll live through Trump”.
There were so many ways I wanted to respond, such as:
Was your life good while “living through Obama”?
Why do you assume that my life will be good “living through Trump” or am I merely to survive? Keeping in mind that I, as a white middle class person doing well can probably make it through a DT administration (unless he messes with SSecurity and Medicare), but what about minorities, LGBT folks, and Muslims who are being harassed across the county? Did you stop to think about that?
And the environment, and terrorists, and the economy, and and and…
I didn’t respond, to keep the peace. I know part of her ignorance is due to where she lives, sheltered from so much ugliness in this country. Plus I don’t want to publicly admonish her as that would block any avenue to have a conversation with her. She really does have a good heart.
::SIGH::
32Hey!
Y’all are AWESOME!!!
I think the hats Bill Maher passed out said something like:
“We’re still here!”
And not planning to go anywhere we don’t wanna
33Be sure to watch to the end.
https://youtu.be/BG-_ZDrypec
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