Backwash

Dear Lord, I thought it was bad before the election; poor naive little me, thinking that, one way or another some of the rancor would die once we dropped the cell door on the head of this election (if you don't get the Return of the Jedi reference, the big monster under Jabba the Hutt's throne room is called a Rancor, Luke kills it by dropping a big spiked door on its head, I'm scraping for levity here).
I honestly don't know where to begin, there's just so much angst out there. So I'm just going to put a few things down here that I think are important facts and considerations for us to sit with at this moment in time:

1. We don't really know if everything is going to be fine, so stop insisting that it is.  I talked yesterday about how God can make dry bones live, but it would be naive to imagine that bones in that vision got there by happy circumstances.  I have hope that a lot of things might make this whole thing not quite the disaster I fear it could be.  I'm reciting the Bene-Gessaret creed over and over in my head: "I must not fear, fear is the mind killer, fear is the little death that leads to total annihilation.  I will face my fear, I will allow to pass over me and through me and when it has gone, only I will remain."  I have hope that perhaps Trump is not the mad demagogue he appeared to be in the election.  I don't put it past him to put on an act to appeal to our discontent and dissatisfaction in order to win what may have been simply the biggest game he ever played.  If that is not the case, I have hope that our system of checks and balances will do some good, and the frustrating political machinery will grind him the same as it did Obama.  It is, however, not fair for me, a white, educated, middle class male, a member of the clergy, a person in a more secure position than most, to say to black, brown, LGBTQ, undocumented, female, unemployed, poor, uninsured, chronically ill, disabled people that they shouldn't be afraid of what might happen to them in Trump's America.  Honestly, I will probably be fine in Trump's America, but that doesn't mean that more vulnerable people will be, and that reality troubles me.  That is where I am looking for things to do and actions to take to ensure that these groups are not left worse off than they have been in the not so glorious past.
2. Our system is not perfect, but it is pretty good, and it worked the way it is supposed to work.  Twice in my lifetime, the popular vote has gone for a Democrat while the electoral college went for the Republican.  I have known this is how it worked since I was 12 years old. I'm honestly okay with it. It is a safeguard designed and instituted because our founding fathers were essentially elitists who did not trust the largely illiterate and under-educated masses to be able to sift out complicated political issues.  It generally works in favor of the Democratic Party, which dominates the geographically smaller but demographically greater regions along the coasts, except in 2000 and this year, when it didn't because Trump managed to peel away the rust belt that largely went for Obama in 2008 and 2012.  Sour grapes is not the way to go right now, and a strict popular system still does have very real hazards.
3. I do have questions about the people who voted for Trump, but it is not fair for me to call them racist, or sexist, or homophobic.  From what I can tell in the most honest and fair analysis, they are just frustrated and feeling rather neglected by the "establishment." Hey, yeah, me too, that was why I was so freaking high on Bernie Sanders dust, and why I was so "meh" about Hillary.  I have questions about how they are willing to look past his rather outlandish and uncouth behavior, and why they honestly think that he is telling them the truth about his intentions or his abilities, but I absolutely get why they didn't want four more years of the Clinton machine. I'm not entirely sure a Trump bull in the DC china shop is entirely a bad scenario.  I have doubts that he will be that agent for change, or if he even honestly wants to be.  I just don't sense the same genuine honesty from Trump that his supporters seem to, but I can't say beyond reasonable doubt that they're wrong.
4. Speaking of discontent, if you're really dissatisfied with the way the government works, it might behoove you to get involved more than once every four years.  Realize that who you elect as your local sheriff probably has more to do with your quality of life than who occupies the White House.  Want to balance the budget and get things moving in congress?  Want to fix the messed up tax system or the Affordable Care Act (and I don't mean repeal, that will hurt too many people, but it absolutely needs some fixing)?  You know who needs to do that?  It's not the Chief Executive, it should be the Congress, all those Representatives and Senators that you may not even be able to name, they are the ones who are supposed to design and pass legislation (that's why they call them legislators), and you get to vote for them too.  In fact, you get to vote for some of them even in non President-electing years, which most of you don't even bother to do.  I get it, watching C-SPAN is not for everyone, and even reading those nitty-gritty political articles can get a little snooze inducing, but hanging the entire function of our democracy on the President is just a little misinformed... okay it's downright stupid.
5. Last one for today: I'm worried about the venom that is getting spit all over the place by both sides right now. I'm not going to ooze out, "why can't we all just get along," (see item #1) But I believe we can survive, and maybe even thrive with President Trump (Lord that still gives me bad shivers) if we hold together on the ideals of our democratic republic.  I believe that we can live up to a higher standard than we ever have managed before if we engage the real problems we face instead of just trumping (no pun intended) up arguments against those with whom we disagree. It ain't gonna be easy, but it is possible, right America?