General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: "Holy crap! Where did THAT come from?" [View all]calimary
(80,693 posts)I think we women have all got scars from years of bad, sexist, and sometimes criminal treatment simply because we're women. I was SOOOO looking forward to the election of the first woman President, to start changing the narrative and the national zeitgeist. I texted to my daughter who lives in another state about that on the day before the election last fall.
What that was going to mean, to us as Americans.
What that was going to mean, to us as women.
What that was going to mean, to the rest of the world, especially those looking to our country for leadership.
What that was going to SAY - to the world, and to ourselves, about who and what WE ARE, as Americans.
What that was going to say about a new era of awareness and enlightenment and ... (yeah, uh-huh. Our votes for the first black President sure turned a new page, didn't it.)
I was naive enough to be absolutely THRILLED, beyond all imagining, when Barack Obama got elected. What that meant to, for, and about us as Americans. What that meant as far as turning the damn page and leaving that old racism crap and that old stupid Confederacy crap BEHIND. What that meant as far as our evolution, our maturity, our growing up and GETTING THE HELL OVER IT, as a nation. What that said - about us, and to ourselves, about culturally and systemically and societally GROWING THE HELL UP! What that signified, as far as turning the page on all that old, obsolete shit, and the mindset that went with it.
Well, MAN-OH-MAN was I ever wrong. I had such faith. I had such hope, for a brighter, saner, more mature and more reasoned future. What that meant... I just reveled in it, that night. That I had lived to see this moment when we finally GOT OVER IT. When we finally embraced the new century, in the new millennium.
And all it did, really, was rip the scab off whatever grievous social and national wounds we thought were finally starting to heal, or that some of us actually dared to believe already HAD healed, or WERE healing. MAN-OH-MAN was I wrong. It just let all the pus and the virulently infectious toxins ooze out into the open. It brought out the ugly underbelly of our national psyche and wrapped it all up in shiny spangled red, white, & blue, and paraded it down Main Street on the back of a fancy convertible, with fireworks and sparklers and marching bands following close behind it.