This is a hard one

 It's difficult to face the facts when they are very very uncomfortable. I squiggle in my seat, don't I need to get some water? Maybe go to the bathroom before tackling this subject...

But here it is.

The Hate Groups are loose from the zoo.

This is not a joke. They aren't waiting till January when Trump takes office. They heard that hate had won the election, and so they can strike back at whoever they imagine has wronged them. Especially the favorite groups of minorities.

Each evening news shows a new group has attacked someone. I imagine the editors have to choose which group deserves coverage.

I also am aware that the groups of those who didn't vote for Trump are establishing a support system, as Starhawk says:

"... probably the most effective and safe way to organize in troubled times is to get together small groups of trusted friends to study the situation together, participate in campaigns and generate actions, and offer support to one another.  Such groups can then band together into larger organizations and coalitions.  One hopeful sign in the past week since the election has been the formation of such groups.  Some of the larger left-leaning groups such as Indivisible and Move-On have been encouraging people to form neighborhood groups.  Progressive Rabbi Arthur Waskow of the Shalom Center recently sent out a post urging Jews to form Freedom Cheders or study groups, modeled on the Freedom Schools of the Civil Rights Movement.  As I mentioned above, forming affinity groups can be a powerful way to assure support and connections for organizing in troubled times."

Source: Starhawk's Substack

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My personal opinion is based on a couple of circumstances my son and his family in Columbus OH had to face.

First I must ask that your respect the privacy of all involved, even if I didn't use correct names. Please don't repost this. I am not including this blog on my FaceBook page.

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Two separate events in Ohio.

I saw this first on Facebook the day it happened (I think 11/16/24). It wasn't until the next day, Sunday that I texted my son (who doesn't do FB) and asked if he knew about it. He said yes, there had been 8 men wearing masks and calling out on a megaphone slurring phrases that are prohibited by most print or broadcast outlets. My son's wife said she'd been at a meeting about 10 blocks away from this "demonstration." Both the Mayor of Columbus and the Governor of Ohio spoke negatively about this occurrence, indicating hate has no place in their town or state.

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This is the hard part. My son and his wife (and probably their high-school age daughter) attended the funeral of a child of a family that lived near them, and that had helped them adjust when they first moved into town. The death was sudden, and to have known the child was only part of their sorrow.

Let's call her Jennifer...who was 14 and in the same high school as my granddaughter who's a senior, so they didn't really run into each other at school. But at some point (this wasn't made clear in my conversation with my son by phone) Jennifer came out that she wanted to be a boy called "J.D." or something like that. With all the speeches by the Christian right (and I don't know if that family had any identity with it) against any LGBTQ+ folks, it was a very brave thing that J.D. decided to do. He must have really felt strongly about coming out. I don't have any information about the high school's attitude, or even the children, but my son said it is a heavily Red State and City. That translates to me that there's a lot of hate speech against LGBTQ+ people, which children will echo, whether from political leaders or their parents, or teachers. I have no idea what J.D.'s home life was like.

But my son said that with the political atmosphere around him, and the results of the election, he wouldn't rule out suicide for J.D.

Then he said at the graveside, the preacher had a basket, and following the ceremony he released a white dove. It flew up into the sky, and was suddenly attacked by a hawk.

I must have said "wow" a dozen times as we talked about this very personal experience my family had due to a child's effort to feel his identity, and then the dove being caught by a hawk. 

Then the preacher said, "let us consider that J.D. was the hawk." I'm pretty sure he was still the dove!

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Asheville and Black Mountain, North Carolina. We're still in recovery from two storms that knocked our communities sideways.

I drove around a lot on Monday, going to exercise, getting groceries, going to a dermatology appointment in Asheville. And I was looking at various decorated/painted pick-ups, one of which also had two big flags standing in the back, and it reminded me that there are some hate groups that feel they can do anything now. (I couldn't see what the other one was but it wasn't a confederate flag, while the American flag was flying opposite it). The red white and blue paint on the sides of the pick-up stated something MAGA related.

For the last two months, when several pick-ups and or SUV's gather and a few men are having a conversation it has meant they are involved in the hurricane recovery efforts. No more do I think that!

I must be dense. People were not joking when they said on Facebook that boys were going around girls and saying "your body, my choice!" or something like that. 

The youth of our country rely upon social media. They're already way ahead of me.

My first inclination was to hide. Never post another thing, because historically I've certainly said enough to identify myself as a very blue oriented free thinking liberal!

My second thought was to remember when I was in college, the Russians set up some missiles right in Cuba, aimed at the US. I was in a conference with other schools, and the buzz was that Russia might win a war against us, and then we'd all have to either be Red or be Dead. With that choice, I chose to be Red. I could very well survive by being agreeable and helpful, and perhaps sabotage whenever possible, but to look as an ally to the invaders. I didn't want to fight for what I believed in. I wanted to resist.

After the election I also had to figure out now how to feel towards my cousins who supported Trump. Of course they're happy. Part of me knows this is not going to last for them as the reality of this incredible landslide of excrement happens. But I stopped posting the "we'll survive, we're strong, we'll resist and it's ok to be angry" sayings to Facebook.

But then I remembered my spiritual path...teaching love is the way to combat hate. (I hadn't known that Buddhist idea back in college, but there was a heavy emphasis on love from the Christian point of view.) So I dropped my anger, and really worked to lessen my sorrow, and became "Barbara who walks in beauty." I learned that from a Navaho writer of mystery books, that being in balance with the world means walking in beauty.

May all be free to walk in beauty. I know, we've a long way to go.

Today's quote:

All [of which the] zoos actually offer the public, in return for the taxes spent upon them, is a form of idle witless amusement, compared to which a visit to the state penitentiary, or even a state legislature in session, is informing, stimulating, and ennobling. 

-H.L. Mencken, writer, editor, and critic (1880-1956)

H. L. Mencken, journalist and editor, called Puritanism, "the haunting fear that someone, somewhere, may be happy."