america is ugly

You will please forgive me.  I am trying to put words to what has just transpired, to make sense of the unfathomable, and I am not sure what is coming out is what really needs to be said, at least by me.

When I was a child, one of the defining moments of the time was the "I Have a Dream" speech on the Mall in Washington.  On that day, August 28, 1963, Martin Luther King, Jr. gave a soaring, speech seeking to inspire the better angels in all of us.  I was in the crowd that day, although I was only five going on six years old.  Mom and Dad had driven my brothers and I along with a caravan of inner city folks to Washington for the march and the moment.  Although I have very little actual memory of the day, it was a defining moment in my life and for people of my generation. It set us on the path of decency and respect for all.

On October 27, 2024, there was another defining moment.  He held a rally at Madison Square Garden.  It evoked a similar rally held by the American nazi party at the previous Madison Square Garden on February 20, 1939.  All that was missing were the swastikas. Speaker after speaker spewed hate and filth.  Women were "bitches".  Fellow Americans, who happen to be Puerto Rican, were a "floating pile of garbage".  In no particular order, he vowed vengeance upon the press, the Department of Justice, "liberals", immigrants, anyone who ever disagreed with him.

It was dark.  It was disturbing.

It was ugly.

And then on November 5, 2024, with the MSG rally fresh in our minds, we as Americans went to vote.  We had a choice between goodness, decency and competence and hate and ugliness.

And we chose ugly.

Our next president has been convicted of thirty-four felonies and is under indictment for fifty-seven others.  He is only out of prison due to the fact that courts have rushed to protect him.  The Supreme Court gave him a get out of jail card for the ages in a decision that will go down in infamy along with the Dred Scott decision and Korematsu v. United States.  According to the Court, a president is above the law.  He can brazenly break the law and there is nothing we can do about it.  Think about it.  He can commit outright felonies in which somebody dies -- come to think of it, he already has -- and there is nothing we can do about it, because six justices of the highest court in the land told us he is immune from prosecution even thought there is absolutely nothing in the Constitution confirming this.  There is something in the Constitution about all men being equal.

As a result, we have a president-elect who is not eligible to enlist in the military as a private, but is going to be the commander in chief.

This is what we chose.

The next president is a felon.

The next president is a sexual predator.

The next president is a serial liar.

The next president is a shallow shadow of an adult out for vengeance against any perceived slight ever foist upon him, real or mostly otherwise.

So say goodbye to the right of women to make their own health decisions.  Say hello to women dying because the government tells doctors they will go to jail if they try to save their lives.  So say goodbye to having access to doctors who will stand up to that and follow the hippocratic oath.

Say goodbye to access to affordable medicine and the right to medical care even if you have a pre-existing condition, all so big pharma and insurance companies can make more money on our illnesses.  As of very soon, every single one of my family will likely be among the class that would not be able to switch insurance for this very reason.

Say goodbye to clean air, to clean water.

Say goodbye to millions of law abiding neighbors who came here for a better life.  Say hello to visiting them in concentration, er... detention camps as they are sent back to wherever they fled in the first place to be slaughtered.

Say hello to more tax cuts for billionaires and higher prices for just about everything for the rest of us.

Say goodbye to Obamacare.  Say hello to "concepts of a plan".

Say goodbye to the Department of Education and respect for learning.

Say hello to bullies, white nationalists, racists and thugs.

Say hello to bigotry wrapped in religion -- even though the odds are there that he will be struck by lightning if he ever actually steps into a house of worship.

Say hello to cheap huckstering from the oval office.  Cheap sneakers and knock off watches in aisle two.

Say hello to an aging, insane lunatic with his hands on nuclear weapons.

I could go on, and probably will in the days to come.

We had a choice, but we could not bring ourselves to vote for an obviously qualified, experienced leader, all because she is a black woman.  Was she perfect?  No.  But then again, compared to him, she was a shining beacon sent from heaven.

I cannot think of a single redeeming feature about him.

And given the choice this is who we voted for.

We chose ugly.

As I wake up this morning and look out my window, all I can think of is my fellow citizens voted for this. This is what we want for me, my family and my friends.  We can all suffer so he can seek out his vengeance upon the world.  We can turn neighbor against neighbor, friend against friend.

All for... well, I don't know.

America is ugly.