Where do we go from here?

There have been days when I've woken up and thought: This did not happen. THIS cannot be reality and days when I've thought: How do we live here, like this?

In a country that chose hate over love?

Fear over hope?

Division over unity?

One of Hillary's slogans was "Stronger Together" and I believe that's true.

I believe this writer gets it right when she says that Hillary Clinton's campaign was a campaign that attempted to look and move forward while others wanted to look to the past, to what people have lost.

Yes, jobs have declined in some industries like coal and steel. I'm from Pittsburgh, so I know all about what it's like for an industrial city to die, but, fortunately, I also know what it's like for a city to be reborn.

Pittsburgh is called a Renaissance city because there are jobs there. It's a great place to live and raise kids, and it's not covered in a cloud of smog like it once was.

We can't go back to the days of unrelenting pollution, unchecked discrimination, and civilized, normalized hate.

We can't tell our neighbors to "go back to where they came from" unless we plan to do that as well.

Many have noted that all of us came from somewhere. The only people who can even attempt to claim that this land is their land is Native Americans, and what have we done but taken that land away from them.

Donald Trump promised to "drain the swamp," but from where I'm sitting all I see is someone who is making the swamp viler and more nasty.

We can't do everything. We can't fight racism and oppression and resist everything and fight 24/7 without making a living and caring for ourselves. But we can control how we respond.

As Michelle Obama said, "When they go low, we go high."



I'll admit that there are times when I haven't felt like going high. When I didn't like being called bossy or the other b word or stupid by someone who couldn't form a grammatically correct sentence.

But what I see is that these people are insecure and insensitive. All they have is name calling, sometimes as a substitute for logic. Those of us who have ever taught freshman competition know that while people can be swayed by fear, you don't WIN with fear.

And what is winning? Winning is being Hillary Clinton, who could have gone lower but instead tried to inspire us to be the nation that is united not divided by class and race.

So what do I say to my misguided brother or sister who voted for Trump? I look to John Wesley, who said:



It was a quote that inspired Methodist Hillary Clinton. When people said she was a murderer, a criminal, and wanted to "lock her up" for the crime of daring to be a woman who dreamed and hoped for a better future for us all, she could have retired.

She was already a successful lawyer, senator, author, speaker, and Secretary of State, she didn't need to be president, but America needed a strong tough leader like Hillary Clinton who wanted to move us forward. We still need one.

The leader we are apparently about to get is not the leader we need. He will not bring back jobs to the miners in West Virginia or the industrial workers in Ohio. His agenda won't make anything better.

So where do we go from here? We don't wade in the swamp water to prove that we can. Yes, we can insult and hate and blame, but where does that take us? It doesn't make us stronger. It does no one good.

To move forward, we need to look to Hillary Clinton, one of the only winners in a sea of losers. She is what makes me proud to be an American.

The Soundtrack for Trumpocalypse

Like many of you who are attempting to get through this, who don't think we can just get over it who don't know if life will ever be the same again, I'm turning to art and music. And here's my soundtrack for now and maybe for the next few weeks, months, years, however long it takes to make it through without losing our dignity and humanity.



1) "I'll never fall in love again" by Burt Bacharach Some of us have fallen in love with a candidate, an ideal, a nation that we feel no longer exists. It's going to hard to put this behind us and get over it, so this.

2) "Talkin' about a revolution" In this election, I feel like our safeguards failed us. The media that was supposed to protect us from electing a demagogue sometimes didn't do its job, with some courageous exceptions like Kirk Eichenwald at Newsweek.

3) "Hallelujah" Kate McKinnon as Hillary Clinton on Saturday Night Live singing Leonard Cohen's classic song: "And even though it all went wrong, I'll stand before the lord of song, with nothing on my tongue but Hallelujah."

4) "America" by Simon and Garfunkel. They write: "'Kathy, I'm lost', I said, Though I knew she was sleeping." Many of us feel lost, like we really didn't realize that this country was filled so much resentment and hate.

5) "Could we start again please" from the musical Jesus Christ Superstar. The video shows Mary Magdalene trying to make sense of what is about to happen to Jesus Christ. Like Mary, many of us are trying to make sense of a situation they thought they understood: "I've been living to see you, dying to see you, but it shouldn't be like this. This was not expected. What do I do now? Could we start again, please?"

6) "Not ready to make nice" by the Dixie Chicks, one of the ultimate anger/protest songs sung by the Chicks after some people criticized them for criticizing the Iraq War. Guess what? They were right. "I'm not ready to make nice. I'm not ready to back down. I'm still mad as hell, and I don't have time to go round and round and round."

7) "Long, long time" by Linda Ronstadt: "Love will abide. Take things in stride. Sounds like good advice, but there's no one at my side. As time washes clean, love's wound unseen, that's what someone told me, but I don't what it means." "I've done everything I know to try and change your mind, and I think it's gonna hurt me for a long, long time."

8) "Will I?" from the musical Rent about a group of young people suffering from AIDs and the uncertainty of what will happen. It seems appropriate for our current political situation.

9) "Save Me" from the excellent film Magnolia: "Can you save me? Come on, and save me, if you can save me."

10) "World on Fire" Sarah McLachlan wrote this after 911. I know some people feel like they did after 911, trying to make sense of a world we thought we know, wondering if the world will never be same.

I'm interested in what anyone else is doing for comfort, to help make it through the days ahead. Let's keep our chins and our heads up and continue fighting for the rights of all.