WTF America?

It hasn’t even been a week and he has initiated project “Let’s Destroy the USA.” I will not utter his name on my space, he is hereto to be known as FOTUS (felon of the United States). WE are at the FAFO moment in our country’s history. And we have sunk so low, so very very low, that I am compelled to write about it (and use an abundance of adverbs). “He” has been taking up too much space in my head, is responsible for a disgusting level of anxiety and fear, which has sporadically morphed into a dragon-sized level of rage.

I had to place parental controls on my social media. I was doom scrolling, and my inner creative was crafting dystopian fiction, utilizing just the first 5 days of his term as fuel for the annihilation of the world as we know it. So now I am relegated to 15 minutes of the social media site which is no longer fact checking because if I stay on any longer I will not be able to sleep. During his first week in office he has basically shut down the government, appointed non qualified individuals to cabinet positions, erased segments of our population, threatened Denmark, and angered Canada. I mean, how does one piss off Canada?

It is time to reach for our communities, to find safe spaces, and safe people and hold on for dear life. My first proactive move was to cancel my prime membership. I am now boycotting Target, Walmart, and Amazon and I have found alternative sites to purchase the products I usually purchase on the behemoth corporation. For athletic fuel, thefeed.com, for supplements iherb.com, for petfood, chewy.com. I am now on Bluesky (for when I eliminate the others) and I have downloaded Goods Unite Us, an app which tracks corporate political donations. I am attempting to eliminate any corporation that has cancelled DEI intitiatives as well as who have made significant donations to Republicans. It is not enough though and I am looking for other ways to make a tiny positive contribution, to connect with those who are being targeted by the disgusting display of wannabe fascism. It feels like my beloved country is dying, that democracy is failing and that hate is winning. Just for today I will continue to make small steps, that is all I can do, to speak up when it is necessary, to protect those in my care and in my community. Bryan Stevenson say that “hope is our superpower.” At the moment I almost believe him.