​Nine years ago today and one year ago today were vastly different days. Both times on the Democratic side were historic candidates. In 2008, we had the first African-Amerrican candidate and in 2016 we had the first female candidate. At the end of the day in 2008, we had a new President, an historic first. We work our oldest son up when the Presiden-Elect made his speech in Chicago. I wanted him to be part of this day in our country’shistory. I cried. It was an amazing night.

Had the Republican won, i would have been disappointed. I would have been sad. But I also would have known that Senator John McCain would have done his best job. He’s proved again and again his love and commitment to this country.

2016 was not like that, although I did cry.

I stayed up until two n the morning, hoping, wishing, praying; still not knowing who was officially the President. how could it possibly be Donald Trump? The racist rhetoric, totalitarianism, the outlandish lying, the flip flop on the level of a see-saw in a storm, the sexual abuse and assault. This man would not be our President.

But I knew.

I woke up in the middle of th night and checked the news, and it was confirmed. The next President would be Donald Trump.

How did this happen?

How?

When my kids woke up, they both crawled into my bed an hour apart. My son was more upset, but he has an anxious personality. He worried for… everything.

Would we be alright?

I lied to him.

I said we would be. It would be okay.

But I didn’t tell him that I really wasn’t sure.

This wasn’t politics. This wasn’t partisanship. This was scary.

I had almost the same conversation with my daughter an hour  later. I lied to her, too. I lied to myself.

I tried.

Lord knows I tried.

I gave the benefit of the doubt. I prayed for an open mind, not only for me, but for our next President.

However, from the moment President Trump was inaugurated he has gone out of his way to alienate more than half the country, and a large part of the world. He’s shown his lack of intelligence and judgment, and his pride in not knowing things. He’s made things up. He out and out lies.

And worse, he’s not pro-life. He’s not for the middle class. He is actively sabotaging health care for all Americans. All of us. He is making our lives less safe. Not only marginalized people, but especially marginalized people – minorities, LGBT+, women, DACA.

Immigration authorities are chasing domestic violence survivors in court rooms. They’re staking out school yards for undocumented parents. Waiting outside hospitals for children recovering from emergency surgery. What in the world is happening in Puerto Rico? There are no words to express my dismay.

The Ku Klux Klan doesn’t wear hoods anymore. They get their torches from Home Depot or the corner hardware store. They’re not ashamed. Nazis are good people. Fifty people dead in Las Vegas by guns adapted to be automatic, and that’s okay because he was white and believed in the 2nd Amendment. They called it an undiagnosed mental illness. Eight dead in NYC is abominable because he was Muslim. They’re both terrorists. It’s time we recognized that.

I won’t try to diagnose the President’s mental health, but someone (professional) should.

It will take us a long time to recover from the damage inflicted on us in this horror show. Everyday I wake up thinking this is a nightmare. The nightmare is that it’s all happening; it’s all real, and it’s horrifying.

It’s been one year, and it’be been difficult for most of us. That’s not an exaggeration – look at the poll numbers.

But this experiment of ours, 241 years strong will persist. We began two plus centuries ago with our resistance to tyranny, and we continue that legacy.  We resist and we will persist.

Nov. 6, 2018. Remember that date.