A Week's Recap

by Margie Senechal

On Monday, I woke up to my world turned upside down. Literally. I woke up with a mild case of vertigo. Mild, but still substantial enough to have me walking with my arms braced on the walls. 

If you've never had vertigo, it's a lot like just stepping off a ten-minute ride on Tilt-a-Whirl, but the feeling doesn't go away within a couple of minutes.

I know it was a mild case because I wasn't throwing up and most of the symptoms subsided with a dose of Meclizine. But, it's still annoying and exhausting. Every movement is done with extreme thought and precision.

Then there was Black Tuesday 2016.

And I woke up on Wednesday with my world turned upside down. Figuratively.   

Like half the country, I spent yesterday wondering how this election result had happened? I had to reassure my fiercely passionate Independent/Progressive Asperger's daughter that everything would be okay.

Even though I'd joked that if Trump won the election, we'd move--preferably to France where there has to be some long-lost Senechal relatives waiting for their American cousins to join them--that's probably not going to happen.

Because when all is said and done, I love my country. Even when it's bad, it's still better than most places out there. And I believe that we can persevere.  In fact, I'm counting on it.

If nothing else, this election gave birth to a movement. A movement that people aren't happy with the status quo--even if they keep electing the same relics into Senate/Congress seats. Over the next three years, we need to build this movement. 

How? 

By making politicians accountable. I think there should be a roll call for every vote and it should be made public so the voters know who is actually showing up to work. And if they aren't "working", then their voters need to be brave enough to vote them out of office in the next cycle. We can't complain about the status quo if we aren't willing to shake it up.

I've seen posts calling for Michelle Obama to run in 2020.(Uhm, yes, please!) But, we have four long years before that can happen and if we want her--or any other progressive--to have a fighting chance, we need to clear the field for them.

Maybe we should look into voting reform by updating out primary process. At fifty-four, this was the first year I'd attended a caucus--why are those still a thing????  We are in the digital age, but we still have to gather and raise our hands?? And why don't all the states vote at once or at least in three or four segments??

Yes, America, I love you,but, we still have some work to do. So, I'll stay.

PS--if you like those ideas, I've got more. I'm a writer. I create ideas.