Paying Attention

The citizens of Hamelin (Pied Piper).
This is my puppet project that is
keeping me tethered to sanity. 

On Oct. 27, I committed to paying attention. It was ten days before the election, and our country was on tenterhooks. We knew, whatever the outcome, we would be facing the wildly unkown. If Harris won, Trump was unlikely to concede, given his actions after the 2020 election. This would most likely result in rage and disruption. If Trump won, the "difficult times" would not be immediate, but soon-coming as he took office.

And soon-coming is here.

Let me come clear:

When I vowed to pay attention, I thought I'd be recording my observations as MAGA denied and fought against a Harris victory. 

Instead, Trump won by collecting 48.9 percent of the popular vote against Harris's 48.3. (Do not let anyone tell you Trump's election was a landslide or a mandate.) 

This meant there was no immediate rioting in the streets. The party that respects the voting process lost; they acknowledged defeat.

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The next two months were an interlude, a suspension. Elon Musk dominated the news. After joining MAGA in late summer, he led the march of billionaires lining up to meet with Trump at Mara Lago. Still, everything was prelude. Nothing was yet "happening."

During this time I experienced waves of dread. I say "waves" because they billowed up and then subsided. I was troubled, anxious; nevertheless, Trump was not my first thought every morning. I pushed politics off my immediate to-do list. I had to. I had burned up stores of physical and emotional energy in the short months of the Harris campaign. 

So post election day, I granted myself a political reprieve. I met each new day with determination to stay in the moment. That got me through Thanksgiving... Christmas...my 65th birthday.

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And then, in the hours following Trump taking his (no hand on the Bible) vow to uphold the constitution, I witnessed (as did you) the "obeying in advance" of CBS, Washington Post, New York Times, and LA Times. Main Stream Media bowed down to prevent Trump from disabling them altogether. As a journalism teacher who monitors new organizations' adherence to ethics and unbiased reporting, I was gutted to see the lemmings march to the sea.

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Fast forward. Honestly, every day is a fast-forward. 

Today Trump posted Napoleon's words: "He who saves his Country does not violate any law." 

I keep expecting SOMETHING to be the straw that breaks the camel's back. One might think a president declaring his inviolable right to ignore the rule of law might be that straw. 

Or not. 

I am still determined to pay attention. 

I hope you are too.

Enough.

Allison