No matter what, we will always have this moment: my two young daughters, helping me press the button to elect the first female president of the United States.Ā
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As a woman, itās been a hard day. As a mother of two young daughters, itās been a very hard day. Not because we didnāt elect our first female president, but because of who was elected instead.
This morning, I went into Quinnās room and the first thing she asked me was, āWho won?ā I told her with tears in my eyes that Donald Trump is our new President-elect and she seemed confused. Then, she asked me why I was crying.
How do you explain to a 6 year old girl how you feel traumatized, scared and devalued? How do you tell her you are worried about how the country will value her and her sisterāsĀ bodies? Their decisions? Their intelligence? Their friends of color and their friends with disabilities? Their Muslim, Black and Jewish teachers that they love and adore?Ā
How do you tell your 6 year old daughter that the President of the United States, the leader of the free world, thinks itās ok to grab women by their pussies without her thinking that it must be ok for anyone to do it? Heās the President after all.Ā He will tell you that you are fat, worthless and ugly. He will mock you and belittle you until the point of exhaustion. But itās ok, because heās our President and he speaks his mindā¦and the liberal mediaā¦and emailsā¦and lock her upā¦and make America greatā¦so half of the country doesnāt care about this.
Half of the country doesnāt care about this. Including other women.
So instead I gave the obligatory explanations: our democracy, voting, living with results you donāt want, keeping an open mind, fighting for what you believe is right, the importance of civic duty and being an outspoken voiceā¦ the same speech so many other parents gave to their own children this morning.
She thought for a moment and said,Ā āWell Mom, I could run for President one day, because girls can do anything!āĀ
And with that, the crack in my broken, black heart began to heal.Ā
Thank you Hillary for giving my daughter that gift. I truly hope that the next four years wonāt erase everything you have just achieved.Ā
And thank you to my husband, the father of my beautiful daughters, who told me in a text message this morning that he was sorry that he couldnāt possibly understand how painful this was because he was a white male. And then he thanked me for being a strong woman and a good role model for our girls and that he would work with me to continue to teach them to value inclusion and fight for their rights. He told me this while this morning, at least 5 other straight, white, male friends of mine told me that I was overreacting. He gets it. Iām so lucky he gets it.
I know that tomorrow is a new day. The sun will rise and we will move on and figure it all out. We will work to protect our civil liberties and protect our friends and families. We will teach our sons and daughters to be kind, tolerant, compassionate and open-minded so that they will be able to better avoid a situation like this. It will happen and it will be fine.Ā
But, today itās ok to be upset and disappointed and mad that a raging narcissistic sociopath conned people into electing him into the highest office in the land. Itās ok to grieve the loss of social change and momentum that made this country great right now. A perfect country? No. Flawed in many ways, but still pretty great. I have to believe that. I have to believe that today we are great and tomorrow we will be better.Ā
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