Replacing Class with Crass; Thoughts on Inauguration Day

I must apologize to those of you who read my blog for great book recommendations. For the past two months I have been suffering from a deep malaise and this overwhelming feeling of being out of touch with the universe has deeply affected my ability to write. In fact, it has stifled my usual joie de vivre causing me to hunker down in my home, avoiding social situations and wondering what I can do to push through it.

Yesterday, determined not to watch the inauguration of Donald Trump, I arranged to meet a dear friend for lunch. On the way to and from the restaurant though I felt compelled to listen to my local NPR station to see if, just maybe, there was an outside chance that Trump would rise to the occasion and allay my doubts and fears for the future of my country. Remember when Hillary said, "when someone shows you who they are, believe it?" I should have listened.

The rhetoric of the Trump inauguration speech was darker, more jingoistic, and more threatening to our allies around the world and to those of us at home who dissent, than even I would have believed. I had to get off the road and send text messages to my friend Don and my sister Cynthia, people I knew would understand my outrage.

Never in my voting lifetime has a president come into office inheriting such a well-oiled machine. If he does nothing at all, we could roll along swimmingly with the lowest unemployment rate and the lowest crime rate in eight years. What universe is this man living in? It's "1984" revisited. How have we come to this? From the pure class, the soaring speeches, the nuanced, thoughtful editorials, the compassion and heart of a Barack Obama to an avowed non-reader, ignorant of history (think of the original meaning of America first), a crass, vocabulary challenged, tweeter-in-chief.

Claiming to speak for the forgotten people of the heartland, he signed his first bill last night, one that rescinds a ruling by President Obama that would lower interest rates on FHA housing loans - loans specifically designed for first time, low income buyers. The savings? One quarter of a percent!

And then there are the cabinet choices, the two most disturbing being Jeff Sessions for Attorney General, a man whose history with the minority community is an abomination, and Betsy DeVos for Education, because we all know that teachers are overpaid, underworked, and should do more testing to justify their phenomenal salaries. NOT!

But this morning I was gifted with a miracle. Don and I turned on the computer and watched the live action at the Women's March on Washington and around the world as gloriously beautiful nasty women from all walks of life, a rainbow coalition of Black, Latina, Asian, and White, gathered in peaceful protest. I knew it would be, to use a Trump adjective, huge. But I was awed by the way it made me feel, the way my heart, Don's heart, lifted. Our lethargy and despair ameliorated by witnessing this pink sea of humanity vowing to be watchdogs, to keep our country on track, to refuse to let evil win. I now know that we have not been alone. I now have the audacity to hope.