Election of Donald Trump 45th President of the United States of America

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The Election of Donald Trump 
45th President of the United States of America

Last night I came home very late from watching the election results with friends in shock if not disbelief. The country had just elected as President of the United States of American a sociopath openly barbarian. True, we have had criminals for presidents before, but never one so uncouth, so ignorant, so vocal in his hatred, so arrogant in his barbarism, his xenophobia, his racism, his misogyny, his homophobia, his disregard for the very Earth. 

In a word, just elected as president of the United States of America, the greatest contemporary empire in the world, is a man whom we must not dare let ever visit the Court of St. James's or Buckingham Palace lest he goose the queen — to the horror of the world to be sure, though most likely to the delight of his supporters.

It is these many supporters that elected Trump that must be most feared. In them, Trump has exposed what is most sick, most pernicious in the U.S. psyche. What we have most to fear is the resonance Trump's hatred, xenophobia, racism, misogyny, homophobia finds in so many of our countrymen, countrywomen.

Going to bed at that late hour, it was this that brought me nightmares and made uneasy my sleep. I woke early this morning and went to a class in "Growing Justice" at the Emiliano Zapata Street Academy, a charter school in Oakland, California, at the invitation of its teacher Colin Miller, to conduct the Talking-Stick Ceremony and allow the twenty young students, ages 13 to 18 years, to express what they felt.

Some were articulate in expressing their fear, their confusion, their grief, their anger. Others were equally eloquent in their silence, their bowed heads, their sad or scared expressions, their cowed postures — even the inattentiveness of some was tainted with nervousness.

What could I say to comfort them when my own spirits were dark, burdened with grief, fear, anger? I said what I could about the need to love now more than ever, the necessity of hope, the importance of focusing our anger to confront the menace of the fascist state with meaningful action, of undermining our fear by cultivating our joy, of expressing our grief and comforting each other. I told them that the Age of the Warrior must come to an end and that we must bring in the Age of the Healer, no less courageous and committed, fired by a fierce love.

But I must say that I found more comfort from them, than they must have had from me, though many came to me after class to thank me for what I had said. The beauty of their faces, of all hues and forms, exuberant with youth in spite of it all, gladdened me and strengthened my resolve to do what I could in the struggle for justice and peace, and the wholeness of the Earth. For ultimately it is for them that the struggle must be carried on with even greater determination.

I came home afterward to a great many e-mails from friends throughout the country and throughout the world expressing sympathy, and grief, and fear, and anger, alarm and disbelief. So many that I must apologize for not answering each individually, Instead I offer this and would say essentially what I said to the young students this morning.

Let us commit ourselves to the struggle for justice, for peace, for a real democracy, a world of love, and an Earth whole and capable of sustaining life. Let us continue the struggle together as fierce healers joyful for life and each other and the challenge of the times painful as they are and even more painful as they promise to be. Let us make joy together even as we go.

Rafael Jesús González 

Berkeley/Oakland, California 

November 9, 2016

 

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