Today is the day after the US midterm elections on the 6th of November, 2018. It is already afternoon in Portugal, where I am, while for many exhausted voters in the States, sleep still provides respite from waking reality.
The whole world watched as Texas, Florida, and Georgia went the way of Trump, keeping the Senate locked in as his personal army of sycophants, while the House went the way of the melting pot, rounding up many more women and minority representatives to its fractured District of Columbia. Europe watched closely as its former partner exhibited ever alien behavior. It was an odd night, with a multitude of compassionate and honest victories barely balancing out the louder voices of the gerrymandered Caucasian xenophobes.
But today all I can think about is Dr. Christine Ford. All I can hear is the laughter.
See what you did now? Republican voters were so angry over your accusations of their good ol’ boy that they went to the polls just to shut you down. You should never have come forward. See what you did? You lost your home, you compromised your family’s safety, you destroyed the life you all had, you lost everything, and for what? Your stupid insistence on honesty just made things worse. See? You cannot win. Our boys are in charge. They can do anything they want to you, whenever they want and however they want. That is how we like it. Masters rape and violate slaves all the time! What’s the big deal? Bend over and shut up. We take care of our boys because they take care of us. So fuck you. You are worthless and powerless.
So today I say: I am Dr. Christine Blasey Ford. I was brutally attacked as a teenager. I survived. I eventually went on to become a university professor, have a family, live a full professional and creative life.
Does it matter that they still laugh, that those who harm us do so with impunity, that we who are harmed must bear the consequences of their actions? Does it matter that they do not have to pay for hurting us, that it is instead we who must continue to pay, daily, with our bodies and spirits?
Yes, Christine. It matters. It matters to me. I am sorry you were dragged through the unspeakable horror of admitting the truth in public, without any protection offered to sustain your life, your sanity, your dignity. I am so very sorry. Today all I can offer is my admiration and respect, my recognition of what it is like to be treated as less than human. I thank you for your willingness to do the right thing, regardless of the fear and terror that flooded your life. I give you all of us out here who see you and care what is happening to you. We aren't going anywhere.
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Today is the day after the day after the US midterm elections, 9 of November, 2018. It is night in Portugal, where I am.
Yes, the whole world watched as crucial southern states succumbed to the mafia chiefs in the White House, while the House of Congress quietly stood up to the insistent demands of voters believing in the potential of representatives who actually listen. But it was more than an odd night. For two days after the election, ballots continued steadily to reveal that women had won, Democrats had beat old incumbent Republican men, Native American and Muslim American and African American women were now going to Congress to genuinely represent their constituents. Yes, the gerrymandered corporate-sponsored electoral college was still there running the government and the White House, but the voices of the dispossessed and displaced brown and black and female and hurt and gay and crying people were finally going to be heard.
President 45, Nixon-like, fired his attorney general while his collaborators continued to lie to cover up his lies, as usual. His axis-evil-cronies were smirking and egging him on, as usual. Everyone else in the world was watching, as usual. And an angry disciple of this toxic president crept into a happy place full of music in Thousand Oaks and shot twelve dancing lovers-of-life in cold blood. Horrifyingly, as usual.
And I thought, there are many who are horrified and they are speaking out and it was therefore not in vain for Dr. Christine Ford to have upended her life in the service of truth and integrity. Looking at the maps yesterday morning, I felt despair...but all is not lost on the Western Frontier. Yes, the noisy pale men and their face-lifted women are still out there laughing at the X-rated terror of a girl being choked by a drunken boy, but there are also many more, many more, who are not laughing, who are disgusted enough with the gun-wielding, bully-riding, boot-stomping, pussy-grabbing, torch-waving antics of the toxic oligarchy and are willing finally to vote in their replacements. Wise, intelligent, compassionate replacements. Finally. Thank you. And not a moment too soon.
9 NOVEMBER 2018