Mid-Atlantic Nightmare

8:15 New York City Time

2:15 Barcelona Time

I am in the air flying home from Barcelona on Tuesday, November 5, Election Day. I was supposed to be in Europe for two additional weeks but a friend was not well and I flew home with her. Friendship is more important than anything else. And so I write this.

As I think about friendship, I realize how important my friends have been in my life. Always and steadfast. I have friends from grammar school and before that actually. My friend Regina and I have been friends since we were both one year olds. Sure we lost touch for a while but have reached out and grabbed the moment to refresh our friendship. And then of course my sister who was excited sitting in the hospital waiting room where I was born. She was slightly under 3 years old. She was really waiting for me to come to life. I am grateful.

But today is different. I might lose a friend or two. I clearly understand differences and that people have them. I have no problem with that—I believe it makes for a better world to live in.

But today is different—today might be a truly terrible day.

It is Election Day in the United States. There are two candidates: Donald Trump and Kamala Harris. We know what havoc Trump can cause and we have also learned a lot about Kamala in the last few weeks. She seems decent and has policies. There is nothing comparable between these two choices. One is an evil man who has lied to Americans since he came on the scene in 2016. And the other is a woman who has served the last 4 years as Vice President. She held many elected offices and seems reasonable. Trump, on the other hand when he was President appointed 3 judges to the SCOTUS bench: justices that were confirmed by the Federalist Society to be pro-life. That action caused the overturn of Roe vs Wade and is known as the Dobbs decision—it grants states the right to make their own restrictions on health care for women. This one change has caused women to lose their lives. Literally lose their lives. Many states have restricted health care for women. They die while they wait for care in so many hospitals in Texas, Georgia, Idaho just to name a few.. These women have to actually bleed out before the doctors care for them. Doctors who do care for women in distress from pregnancy can go to jail or lose their license in some states. If a woman has an ectopic pregnancy which are never viable, must carry this tubal baby, who cannot survive to term or die before of a complication. They die in waiting rooms, in hospital rooms, in cars in the parking lot of the emergency rooms or at home. One man who was president for four years has caused the loss of our healthcare. He believes the states should decide what rights women have. That’s right, if you are a woman living in a conservative state, you might actually die if you become pregnant. I am unsure why in the United States of America, some women have more rights than others, for now. There are so many complications in health care of pregnancies and now some states refuse to treat women at all until they are nearly dead. The doctors literally have to wait until the last breath of the woman to help her. Sometimes she will lose the ability to have children or suffer irreparable harm to her organs or a million other situations that can go awry.

I am writing this because when I boarded the plane today I said something to a woman about Kamala winning. She turned on me and said she should not win. I said, oh no, she has to win. The woman nicely informed me that she liked Trump’s policies. I immediately retorted that Trump was an evil man and that I know that for a fact. I know it because he has been convicted of many felonies in addition to sexually assaulting a few women. This is one of the reasons I left the country: I could not deal with anyone telling me they liked his policies. HE HAS NO FUCKING POLICIES.

Was it a policy to lie to the America people during the worst pandemic many of us have experienced. How many people would be alive if Trump did the right thing from the beginning. Trump denied the pandemic was happening until the morgue trucks were double parked in New York City because of the overflow of dead people. Yes that is correct, morgues could not fit the dead. As the richest country in the world, we lost a tremendous amount of people: millions. It was not necessary. THIS IS NOT POLICY BUT INSANITY.

Do you believe that separating children from their parents at the border, without documenting their names and family names is policy. NO IT IS NOT POLICY. It is a violation of human rights. More than 1,400 children will probably never know who or where their parents are.

There are so many other non policies that have hurt Americans that I can document, but I can’t right now. I just know today I will lose some friends. I cannot understand their ignorance, for I can call it nothing else, to vote for someone who has been tried and convicted of so many things. The man has provoked violence in the streets on January 6th and has bred hate in others for so many people. Remember the temple in Pennsylvania where many Jews praying died from a mad shooter who quoted Trump in his manifesto. And what about El Paso shooting when some crazy man followed Trump’s “policy” about rapists and murderers crossing the border. Unfortunately he just randomly went into a Department Store and shot anyone who might look like a migrant. For the community in Buffalo who lost many in a supermarket shooting—a supermarket where the majority of the shoppers were black. For all the transpeople who suffer the hate and bullying of those who think that women’s sports is the FUCKING ISSUE. These are people who think that Trump is a Conservative Republican or that they have to vote for him because of his policy. Let me state clearly: HE HAS NO FUCKING POLICIES.. He has abandoned effectively those true Conservative Republicans who do have policies. I might not agree with those policies but I know they won’t kill me.

So many true conservatives and Republicans have come out against Trump. People who worked in his administration, Pence, his Vice President [since Trump’s insurrectionists failed to hang him], former and current justices, district attorneys, former Secretaries of State, Defense, Education and Attorney Generals. Reliable news sources of all persuasions have diligently documented the Trump abuses. NY Times actually documented his lies and that number is astronomical.

Not sure how many of my friends are voting for Trump [I don’t believe I have many that would]. but I know if they are celebrating his win, I cannot continue my friendship. There is too much information out there that they should know. I believe they have had enough time to evaluate a simple situation and move away from one-sided media stations but instead they consciously crossed a line. A line so injurious to others that I cannot conceive of speaking with them again.

I just must pray that Kamala wins—there really is no other choice. I am terrified of the alternative.