Woke Up This Morning: It's as White as Trump's America

Hiked eight miles yesterday. It was warm – close to 70 degrees.

Woke up this morning, and it was as white as Trump’s America:



Also yesterday, I realized I cannot keep up this level of political fixation.

I just.

Cannot.

Aligned with neither the Left nor the Right, I get abuse from both sides when I go public with my opinions.

And really. Why is it important what I think? Whose minds do I imagine I’m changing? Aren’t I just talking to hear myself talk?

###

Yesterday was a day filled with petty miscommunications, bruised feelings. Cathy Day upon hearing that I have turned down her Thanksgiving invitation proceed to rant to L about how weird my relationship with my X-husband is – like it’s any of her fucking business and like her entire life isn’t swimming with weirdness: She essentially drove her normal kid crazy by making the disabled kid the fulcrum of family life. She did this because she’s a control freak, and Gregory’s disability gives her absolute control.

L for whatever bizarre reason decided to recount her conversation with Cathy to me in exhaustive detail.

Okay, I get it. Everybody gossips. This is human nature. Everybody thinks that everybody else’s lifestyle choices are “weird.”

But whyever would L think I wanted to hear about her conversation with Cathy?

"Are you offended?" she asked me.

"Yes," I said.

"No-o-o-o. Really? You're joking, right?"

I made my eyes go wide and smiled close-lipped.

L is genuinely fond of me. I know that. After she determined that I really was offended, she hovered around me all day long, chattering away about the most superficial and inconsequential things – and that was annoying.

I’m kinda, sorta, maybe beginning to date someone, and he got all bent out of shape because I didn’t immediately return one of his communications. And that was annoying.

Then on Facebookland, someone I’ve known for 40 years posted a rant about Judge John Primomo. This is the judge who cautioned a group of newly naturalized citizens that if they didn’t like Trump’s election, “You should go to another country.”

John, my acquaintance of 40 years, spun this out into an apocalyptic doom and gloom scenario. Clearly the next step for these newly naturalized citizens was the camps!

Something about the source John linked to did not sit right with me. So I looked up the original news story. Primomo did not even vote for Trump in the recent election! The remark had been recirculated out of context: The judge appeared merely to be reminding new citizens that democracy is democracy – you may not always be happy with the results but somehow, you’ve gotta figure out a way to live with them.

John has been one of the worst of those hysterical HRC supporters. So, of course, I knew that by commenting at all on anything he posted, I was baiting him.

But how could I resist?

Yada, yada, yada: remarks out of context. Yada, yada, yada: untrustworthy sources parading as news. Yada, yada, yada: No wonder we’ve lost all credibility outside the echo chamber. Yada, yada, yada: Oh, and by the way, you sound just like a Trump supporter: Your sentences use different subjects and objects, true, but the adjectives and the decibel level – identical!

Of course, he exploded.

How dare you compare me to a Trump supporter! That’s two strikes against you! he raged. Meaning: I had already revealed myself as a Quisling because I had voted third party. People like you are the reason why America is not America anymore!

You don’t get to judge me, asshole! I responded. Fuck you.

And unfriended him and blocked him.

Most satisfying thing I did all day. Except for the hike!

I made out with John once at a Halloween party when I was in my 20s. He was a good kisser. I’m still not sure why we didn’t follow it up with the down and dirty. Possibly because we were prescient and knew that 40 years hence, we’d be screaming at each other over Donald Trump.