Today Is A New Day

Or at least, that's what I tell myself.

Because I have to. As a mom. As a woman. I have to tell myself that today is a new day and things will be very much the same, and very different, all at the same time.

No?

Don't you agree?

Whether or not your candidate won the Presidency. Whether or not your candidates won in your local races (way to go, NC, still on hold for a final determination on who our governor will be - FAB-u-lous!). No matter what happened, it's a new day for us all.

And for some? It's terrifying.

This election was horribly taxing on many of us.

We lost friends. We looked at people we thought we knew and wondered, how? how on earth? is this even possible? What? Why? HOW?

And for many of us the struggle has truly just begun.

Because those of us who believe in equality and freedom for everyone? We feel as though we've had the rug pulled out from under us. It's not good. It's a nasty nasty feeling.

Honestly? When I went to bed on Tuesday night I knew. In my heart and in my gut, I did not stay up all night to find out news that would terrify me.

And if there are people out there reading this who disagree? I respect you enough to ask you why. How can you disagree? I get the politics of it - did you really just want someone with no political experience? Because if that's the case, well, okay then. You've got it.

But the hatred. The fear-mongering. The horrors. How could you accept that? How? Please tell me.

Because I know so many of you who do not hate others for reasons that represent who they are. You don't hate Black people. Muslims. Jews. Latinx people. Gays. Lesbians. Transgender people. You accept that we all have rights. We're all people who should be treated as equals. You accept that.

Don't you?

Because right now I am fearful. Terrified. I fear for my friends of color. I fear for my friends of different religious beliefs. I fear for myself as a Jew. For my daughter.

Good G-d, I am fearful for women. WOMEN.

Women. Where were you? White women. Where were you hiding?

Please tell me how you could vote for a man who claims that his trash-talking-nasty-self was simply being one of the boys. Locker room talk. Dear G-d. A phrase that will go down in history.

Think about it. Our grandchildren will read that phrase in their history books. I mean, won't they? It'll be on all the debate recaps. You guys - it just WILL.

And now the KKK is planning a celebratory rally in North Carolina.

My home.

The state I live in.

How. Is. This. Even. Possible?

I'm worried. I'm terrified. I'm sad.

I'm thinking of the children who do not look like my own. The children who now have to listen to their parents explain how a President who hates them, or who encourages people to hate them, how he has become the leader of the free world.

Oh, President Obama, I thought I would miss you before. But now. Just. Now. Don't go. Please.

And so, today is a new day.

Because it has to be.

You have to stand up with me. Beside me. I stand up with you. Beside you.

We find the causes we can support. The causes that will need us now more than ever. The efforts that will take all of our hands and help. I share a few with you here, today, and encourage you to share. Share with the people among your people who know - who feel it - and who want to DO SOMETHING.

Because if you weren't doing something before? Well, today is a new day.

Showing Up For Racial Justice

Black Lives Matter

Raising An Advocate (course for parents)

MomsRising

White Women for Women of Color

American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU)

Planned Parenthood

What Can I Do?

Million Hoodies Movement for Justice

NAACP

Southern Coalition for Social Justice 

March for Love in NC - December 3rd

Please know I am not currently affiliated with all of these organizations, but some of them are already extremely important to me. 

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