Editor's wife weighs in on Trump presidency

(Gazette Blog Editor's note: My wife wrote this to her family and her Facebook friends.)

By Patricia Keyworth
aka The Consort
 
I have had a day for the election results to settle in. Having stayed up to write my feelings during the wee hours of election night, I spent yesterday feeling petrified, full of despair, and sobbing as though every bit of hurtful past life events were triggered by the election outcome and spewed forth until there were simply no more tears to shed. Never have I had such a reaction to an election. I attempted to pull myself out of it by leaving the house. I felt like a zombie. I felt numb. I felt just like I did after 9/11, as I drove in traffic and faced people at the store in a stupor. It seemed as though everyone I encountered felt the same -- in shock, but doing their best to be kind to one another or not looking up at all.

Today, as soon as I opened my eyes, the reality hit again. Regardless of the fact that my candidate of choice lost the election, the fact remains that the man who I view as an egotistical, racist, mocking, fear mongering, disrespectful, misogynistic individual, will be in charge of our country for the next 4 years.

I want the people in my life who chose to vote for him, to understand that my fear of this man is based on his own actions and history alone, and not on politics. My father taught me that even if I tended to stand with people or parties whose values I generally shared, it was important and okay to vote for the other party if their candidate was truly more qualified. I have always opened my mind to that possibility.

Obviously, this was not the case in the 2016 election.

With all of this in mind, here is what I would like to say to Donald Trump. My children’s and grandchildren’s lives are in your hands, and they matter just as much to me as yours do to you.

Watching the election results Tuesday night, my heart ached watching the Hispanic, middle aged Hillary supporter cry as I suspected she wondered and worried about her own future and that of her children and grandchildren after your hateful and generalized statements about Mexicans and other immigrants already living and working in our country. Show me that you are wise enough to see the difference between people who enter our country trying to make a better life for their families and those who you see as “rapists” and a threat.

Understand global warming as the real event that it is, not something drummed up by politicians or corporations with agendas of their own. As glaciers melt, you simply must admit that the issue deserves your attention.

I insist, and you must show me, that you see women as the intelligent and hardworking individuals they are, and not simply as objects for you to fondle, grope and disgrace at your pleasure. Let me hear you apologize to every woman in this country for your demeaning behavior and mean it!

Show me that you are more than your bluster and your ability to inspire hate. Show me that you care as much about the poor, the middle class, the disabled, people of color, the LGBT community, and the immigrants who have always made up this country, than you do about your equally prosperous friends. Show me that the 1%, like yourself, is paying its fair share of taxes, as I have done all of my life, even as a single mother of two. Wouldn’t the money that you saved with a tax loophole have done much to serve our country? Show me your tax returns if you’ve nothing to hide.

Admit that you do not “know more than all the generals,” and that you will rely NOT on your ego, but that you call upon professionals to help you make some very serious decisions. Show me that you intend to do whatever it takes to keep us out of another, and potentially end-of-the-world war. To this end, show me that I needn’t worry myself sick about your inexperience and hot headed, racist nature.

If you can show me that there is honestly another person inside of you than what I have seen, (as your family would have me believe), then, and only then, will I trust that your supporters made the right decision – a decision that, possibly unbeknownst to them, was based on lies and hate tactics and were used to inspire those most vulnerable to believe in you.

I am frightened beyond belief at the thought of you as the leader of our great country. If you actually possess a more gracious and truthful heart than what I have seen thus far, now is the time to prove it.

Go ahead and prove me wrong so that I can promise my grandchildren a hopeful future, as opposed to what I honestly fear could very well be the destruction of their world.

Go head, Trump. Prove it.