There’s a reason why I haven’t posted in so long. My PTSD is at full bore and I can’t focus. I can’t write because my ability to concentrate is shot. I seem less able to cope with problems as they come up. I feel constantly on edge. My anxiety is unrelenting; it keeps me up at night and darkens my days. I’m often on the verge of tears, and frequently close to white hot rage. Getting through each day feels like a herculean accomplishment, but there’s no attendant pleasure in a job well done. Life is more burdensome and the future seems very dark.
There have been problems involving my daughter and addiction again. That’s bad enough, but I’d be able to cope with that more easily if my country wasn’t collapsing into so much rubble. Lately, the destruction seems to be accelerating and the things that are happening are becoming more nightmarish and blatantly oppressive. America has become a place I no longer recognize.
It’s not just Trump. It’s the fascist patriarchy the Trumpian-retooled GOP has become. Because of Trump, it has become a party run by a group of all-white, almost exclusively male sociopaths who despise people of color, non-Christians, Democrats, LGBTQ, migrant children — and women. Perhaps women most of all. Their misogyny seems to have no bottom.
The slew of abortion bans attempting to overturn a law that has been in place for 46 years is clear evidence of how much this group hates women. I don’t care how you feel about abortion, or what your religious views are, the federal government has no business making rules about what should be a personal decision between a woman and her doctor (and in some cases her husband or partner). The fact that two states made no exceptions for rape and incest, even if it’s a child raped by a relative, proves to me the patriarchy cares nothing about preserving life, or about a woman’s emotional or physical health, but about oppressing women and girls. The GOP is reminding me more and more of the Taliban. How much longer until they start making laws mandating restrictive clothing? How much longer until we are told what we can own and how much money we can have? How much longer until we lose our right to vote?
The hypocrisy of these men (and a few women) is astounding. This group is anything but pro-life, judging by their callous and cruel treatment of migrant families and children, their blithe lack of concern about the endless school shootings, their neverending attempts to take away our healthcare (including making pregnancy and even just being a woman a preexisting condition), their contempt for laws that protect our environment, and their unmitigated greed, hunger for power, and lack of empathy.
This is why our founding fathers wrote the separation of church and state into the Constitution. Mixing religion and government never leads to anything good. It corrupts both, and theocracies are without exception violent, hellish places to live, especially for women and people who deviate from the governing religion. One only needs to look at some of the Middle Eastern countries or medieval Europe to see how bad things can get. Here in America today, we have a group of fundamentalist evangelical Christians who have way too much power and who wish to replace the Constitution with biblical law. They appear to be succeeding in their efforts so far. Such an outcome seemed unthinkable at the time of Trump’s election.
We are falling behind other developed nations in every way. As they move forward into the future, we are becoming an oppressive backwater, a country resembling a repressive Middle Eastern theocracy or a violent banana republic more than a forward looking democracy. There’s been an uptick in police brutality, and no one does anything about it. We have a president who chose an attorney general to be his personal lawyer and “fixer” instead of representing the People. Trump stomps all over our Constitution and the rule of law. He and his sycophants break the law on a daily basis and are never held accountable. There are no checks and balances anymore, and the Democratic Congress seems weak and ineffectual, unable or unwilling to contain Trump’s destructive impulses.
No one wants to come here anymore. On social media, I have heard people from other countries say they have cancelled trips to America because they are too afraid. I don’t blame them. There is much to be afraid of. People who are able to are leaving, especially the young, who rightly see no future here.
I have a terrible feeling about where this country is going that I will leave unsaid. But I think anyone who is awake and aware sees what’s coming.
We ar running out of time. We must rise up because no one is coming to save us. If we don’t, we are complicit in our own destruction.
Lucky Otters Haven 