As many of you may know I am a ResearchDiva or a Google Queen. If I don’t know the answer I will research or hunt until I find out what it is. Going hand in hand with that is the fact that I tend to be verbose, unable to define the word “IT” in under 400 words or less. Both of these ideas became apparent last night when my 19 year old asked me if it was illegal to burn an American Flag?, and could President Elect Trump jail an offender or deport an American Born citizen for doing so?

Enter Google… From the online Law Dictionary

1. “Currently, flag burning is not illegal in the United States.  The Supreme Court of the United States in its decision from 1969 has ruled that the burning of the flag is protected by the First Amendment. However, the person who burnt the flag can be found guilty of a misdemeanor for starting a fire without a permit.” 
2. “Natural-born U.S. citizens may not have their citizenship revoked against their will, but may choose to renounce their citizenship on their own.”

The above being said, I don’t believe that Flag Burners are right or correct in their actions, but they are protected. In the current climate there would be an awful lot of prisons full of people accused of starting a fire without a permit. I think we have better things to do with our time and criminal justice resources. As for the second point, he isn’t going to be able to revoke anyone’s citizenship for it either.

He is full of hot air and bluster, carrying on with his Twitter account to his followers because it seems like a good idea at the time. I wish he would really think before he opens his mouth or lets his fingers do the walking. This country was founded on the ability to protest, I am sorry that he doesn’t like it. But we do not work for him, we are not members of the Trump Payroll. Therefore we have the right to speak against him. As generations before us have spoken out against presidents that they did not agree with.

That is what makes this country great, the ability to speak our mind and have differing points of view. If you plan to take away that right you have another thing coming. Never Mind the 2nd Amendment and the Right to Bear Arms. How about the 1st Amendment and the Right to Free Speech? That means way more to me than any gun or rifle. The right to speak my mind, have freedom of the press, and the right for different religions to practice freely in this country, all of them, not just the ones that you and I agree with.

First they came for the Socialists, and I did not speak out—
Because I was not a Socialist.

Then they came for the Trade Unionists, and I did not speak out—
Because I was not a Trade Unionist.

Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out—
Because I was not a Jew.

Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak for me.- Martin Niemoller

I am afraid, afraid of what the next 4 years will bring in the country that I love, the country that I was raised in, the country that I call home. I joked before this election that if I didn’t like the outcome I was fleeing to Canada or someplace else. That is not the case, I will stay and fight, fight for the country that I believe in. I will stand up for what I believe is right. I will speak up, speak up for the melting pot that this country is. This is what we are, and what we always have been, and 4 years of HIM, will NOT change that!!!

Edmund Burke said it as well: “The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing”. I for one will do something, whether it is to lobby my local representatives or work hard at the local level for what I believe in, you can bet your sweet ass I will do something!!

The night of the election I was pacing and generally worrying myself to death, I was on the phone with my dad and he said “there is nothing you can do about it now, we just have to let it play out, just turn the channel and find something else to watch”. My comment was “who made me this political? Who taught me to care as much as I do? You did!! And now I care about this, it is my future!”

As I watch his cabinet take shape I shake my head in disbelief and horror. At the same time realizing that there are people who voted for him. The “Anus Mouthed Leathery Tangerine” as the Liberal Redneck had termed him.  He and his group of friends and cronies scare the living shit out of me. He sounds to me like a damn dictator, he has way too much money and the ability to throw it around with abandon.

He has tapped into the hate that has been bubbling under the surface for the last 8 years. The racism, and the redneck, good-ole boy network. Making them all excited that someone was gonna bring back those high paying jobs that were shipped overseas. Did no one notice his suits, ties and all his daughters clothing line is made in CHINA? He ran on a platform of LIES!!!  As a smart, educated, liberal woman. I think it is time we shut that good-ole boy network down.

 

I went to sleep the night of the 2016 Presidential Election full of hope. Hope that we as a nation we would have shattered the glass ceiling, hope that we would have set this country onto her feet again, dusted her off so that she may strut her stuff. Instead what I feel is fear. Fear mixed with equal parts of shame and dread. Fear of what same future holds, shame at what some of my country people did, and what the Electoral College did, and dread at what those actions will bring.

I am a woman who came of age in the 80’s, when the first generation of “Yuppie” Women were told we could do and be anything we wanted to be. We could work, have families, children, powerful careers. In short, Have it ALL!!. Or we could forego the family for a career if that was what we chose, there was no shame or judgement. We could clear our won path and make our own way. Roe v. Wade was part of that great shift, women had full control over our bodies, we could make reproductive decisions, we had access to birth control, money and in some ways power. Roe v. Wade has been slowly whittled away, state by state, as the Religious Right believes that abortion is a Religious and a Political decision not a personal or a medical one.

In the past decade my friends in the LGBT community have fought their own battles. Battles to love their own way, to end discrimination in the workplace, to adopt children as a couple. to marry and have that marriage validated and recognized in every state in the union if the relocate. Finally on July 26, 2015 that became the law of the land. LGBT couples rushed to marry in every state that had denied them the right before. As a resident of Massachusetts LGBT couples had enjoyed that right for many years, but if they relocated there was no guarantee their marriage would be recognized in another state. A fact that I find both reprehensible and sad. Who you love is not a choice, it is biology, pure and simple.

I have tried to be upbeat and positive and not mourn the choice of this election, and wait to see how things have played out. As President Elect Trump has announced 2 of his cabinet members that positivity and patience has begun to wane. Trump has announced his Chief Strategist-Stephen Bannon. A man who is best known as a White Nationalist, an unabashed Anti-Semite and a racist, he also has has published writings that are very hateful to American Core Values. He is the one who scares me the most, who espouses my fear the most. He reflects everything that I didn’t want about a Trump Presidency. A man who believes it is his way or no way. A man who has more in common with Rush Limbaugh than any Political Moderate. This announcement was followed with his Chief of Staff as Reince Preibus. The current RNC Chairman, is the appointee who is trying to calm us all down. He is the peacemaker, not that I see any peace on the horizon in this presidency.

I am trying not to be an alarmist, I really am, I am trying to let things play out, honestly I am. I was raised to listen to all points of view before you jump to any conclusions. But my point of view is this: the amount of hate and discontent that has been bubbling just below the surface in this country has finally found a voice. It found a voice in the form of an Old White Millionaire that promised to Restore Jobs, Deport Immigrants, and Make America like it used to be in the Ozzie and Harriet Days. I happen to be of the mindset that things in the 50’s were neither glorious nor wonderful and those days aren’t gonna be so great.

 

So in that notion I am not gonna mourn this election, or protest the results because neither will any good. I am gonna find the best outlet I can and I am gonna fight. I am gonna fight for the continuation of Roe v. Wade, fight for my friends in the LGBT community and fight to keep the idea of Affordable Care alive. We need all need access to Health Care, not just the ones that can afford the best care, everyone does. No one should be forced to choose between medication or rent. I was raised to stand up for what i believe in, and these are things that I believe in. No one will tell me different, and I dare you to debate me. Bring it on!!!