Fearing for the Future

Today I attended my son’s MLK assembly.  It was surprisingly emotional for me, as I thought about all the good work that Dr. King and his followers have done and how today is President Obama’s last day in office.  I was so proud of my child, and yet so scared for the future.  Back in 2011, as the Arab Spring movement really began picking up steam in the Middle East, I remarked to someone who was tut-tutting it that I had no doubt that an Arab Spring-like movement would eventually ensnare the US.  Here we are, with a significant percentage of the population so dissatisfied with their current lot in life that they were willing to turn the other cheek to a series of hateful rhetoric, demeaning behavior, and rights violations. I fear that peace and hope for positive race relations are in even graver danger in the US now. We are a country divided, and the new president is not the man to unite us.

I have a lot of friends marching on Washington on Saturday. I fear for their safety, because there is sure to be violence, especially at a march organized by, for and about women, in protest of a new president who normalized sexual assaults on women.  I pray that the violence will be limited and minor, but I worry  that there is at least some chance that I will turn on the television and discover that it took the same sickening twist that some of the Arab Spring protests took and I will see stories of women who had their clothes ripped off and were brutally assaulted by multiple perpetrators.  If you think this is catastrophizing, think about the number of “how to be safe at the march” articles that have been circulating.  I know I’ve never seen so many.

I fear that there will be continued uprisings and conflict between racial minorities and law enforcement. I fear that my LGBTQ friends will lose some of the progress they’ve made in the last 10 years.  I fear that too many families will learn the hard way just how essential preventative care and coverage for pre-existing conditions is.

I fear that the dam will eventually break, and the anger, frustration and violence will spill over into the streets on a wide scale, not  just in the individual towns where a triggering hincident occurs.  I fear that much like Arab Spring, this will peak in about two years, just as I return to the US with two young impressionable boys.

Unlike my husband, I am not in the military, so I can say what I think, and I think the President-elect is vile, dangerous, unqualified, and likely mentally ill.  However, I do not want him to fail miserably, because if he fails miserably, he will take us all down with him.

I hope that the next four years proves me wrong. I hope that we find our way to peaceful coexistence without detouring through periods of extreme violence or destruction.  I intend to do what I can to further the process- to speak my mind against injustice, to give credit where credit is due, and to do my very best to respect the opinions of those who disagree with me, unless their opinion is violating the rights of another person.

I hope that you will all do the same.