It’s taken me a week to write this because I’ve been in shock, hurt, depressed, angry, confused. It’s my job to read people and understand them, but I am completely lost right now. This isn’t a matter of red versus blue, Republican versus Democrat. This is about human rights, basic decency, what we as a People endorsed as what was acceptable and ok. This is about the fact that the majority of America felt the price of eggs and gas was more important than their right to govern their body. That we would rather have a convicted felon, proven rapist, outspoken racist misogynistic, hate-filled white man than endorse a woman. That he has said in not so many words that he would gladly be a dictator than to serve the People. I am terrified. And there are many who would think I’m being overly dramatic, but I have read some of the Project 2025 documents, I know the potential attacks on our educational and healthcare systems that are coming, I have learned of children being forced to carry their rapist’s child to term, I have read the news about women bleeding out and dying because something went wrong with their wanted pregnancy but they were unable to get an abortion to save their life.
Let’s talk about that for a second. Let’s talk about why the ability to govern your own body isn’t a fundamental right. It’s swarming around this argument of “pro-life” versus “pro-choice.” I’m laughing at irony of the term “pro-life,” because it doesn’t truly take life into consideration. It doesn’t take the life of the mother into consideration when her health is compromised by the pregnancy, even if that pregnancy was wanted and planned for. It doesn’t take the life of the child into consideration when they will have birth defects if carried to term. It doesn’t take the life of the child into consideration when they find out they were a product of rape, that their father is also their grandfather, and they now have to live with the tortured knowledge of their existence. It doesn’t take the life of the child or of society into consideration when they are born into a household where they are unwanted or unable to be financially or physically cared for, causing that responsibility to be shifted to the foster care system. That child will become a financial and physical drain on society, as the government will need to step in when the parents neglect and abuse that child, it will have to provide housing, clothing, food for that child, it will have to pay for therapy as that child struggles with feeling unwanted, and it will have to pay for legal rehabilitation when a large number of those children grow up and turn to a life of crime and/or drugs to numb the pain they feel at just their own existence. I believe it was Hilary Clinton who said, “If every ‘pro-life’ believer adopted an ‘unwanted’ child, we would have a country that not only preached beliefs but that also lived them.” Sister Joan Chittister said, “I think in many cases your morality is lacking if all you want is a child born, but not a child fed, not a child educated, not a child housed.” The pro-life side has this idea that there are women out there who use abortion as birth control, and while this is sadly true in some cases, it is an extremely small percentage of abortion cases. And it’s sad that those situations are overshadowing the rest, just like it’s sad that the few women who “cry rape” overshadow the enormous majority of legitimate cases of sexual violence. But when people don’t want to face reality, they will grasp on to the smallest details, even when those are glaringly false, just so they can continue to live in their narrow world belief.
There is so much I could say about this, but all you have to do is look on TikTok, Instagram, Facebook and you will find millions of people who have said it better. These voices are crying out in pain, knowing that over half of our fellow Americans endorsed racism, endorsed hate, endorsed the deliberate spread of misinformation. They endorsed someone who incited an insurrection of our democracy and they believe that’s who should represent our democracy. I don’t understand that. Of course I want a better economy than it’s been recently, but not at the expense of my dignity and soul. To the people who endorsed Trump, I wish I could understand you, I wish I could find the empathy in me for your side of the story, I wish I could let go of my anger right now. But this one cuts deep, and it’s taking everything in me to try and focus on uniting people rather than dividing them. To those who didn’t endorse Trump, I am so sorry. I’m sorry for the pain you are feeling now, for the hopelessness and for the anger. We should all be able to live our life honestly and with joy, but today that’s a tough thing to do. Today, I am grieving humanity.