At my cluttered desk half an hour after sunrise on Nov. 6, I was scrolling through the morning’s dismal news reports when I saw them: Probably 20 Canada geese, in two fluid chevrons flying around the Middlesex Corporate Center on Broad Street and then past my third-floor windows and over my building.
I can’t imagine how much energy they must put into keeping their nine- or ten-pound bodies aloft. But that’s what they do, even the day after an election. Seems like there might be a lesson in that.
For many people in my circles of family and friends, this morning is an occasion to be mourned — and for some, who suffered from even more profound anticipatory anxiety during this election cycle, it may seem like a traumatic end to an era in which morality and good sense were relegated to the back seats of the bus like school children prone to disruption.
But the geese continue to migrate (although I believe their migrations are getting to be more local, as the earth warms). The squirrels continue to forage for their winter larder. Frogs continue to take refuge in the mud at the bottoms of ponds and lakes. The barred owls in the woods around Dividend Pond in Rocky Hill continue to call out to preserve their territory. And the coyotes that frequent the stream-fed and dammed pond continue stalking stray geese stranded in the weeds.
So yes, the natural world takes all this upheaval in stride — no interruptions to the daily parade. But we as Americans can’t afford to take this in stride. That would mean sacrificing too much that is good and proper.
Accepting that it’s okay for the federal government to plan to deport millions of people — immigrant families and dedicated workers — would be wrong, even if those people are undocumented.
Accepting that it’s okay to plan more tax cuts — for anyone, but especially for the ultra-rich — that would be paid for by cutting benefits for the nation’s less affluent and retired workers and their families would be wrong.
Accepting that it’s okay to stack the Justice Department with loyalists rather than the seasoned and impartial personnel already in place would be wrong.
Accepting that it would be okay to use that reconfigured department to go after political opponents or people perceived as not loyal enough would be wrong.
To accept that it’s okay to undermine faith in the electoral system that has propelled this nation for more than two centuries would be wrong.
Accepting that it’s okay for our governments — state and federal — to strip from women the rights to self-determination and healthy choices would be profoundly wrong.
And so on. And so on.
The question now becomes how we, as the 66+ million people who voted for sane leadership, can respond. And that answer is — or those answers are — not yet clear to me. I’m hoping (against hope) that the answers will present themselves in the next few months and that we can begin to push back against this tide of awfulness unleashed by an egocentric landlord from Brooklyn and the people who support him — who failed repeatedly to take steps to stand up to him and his selfish allies.
Words of War 