Privilege Blog

What To Do When The Unimaginable Happens, Or, Saturday Morning at 8:38am

I have a plan.

  1. Reach out to people, just to check-in. This blog post counts.
  2. Realize that nothing is happening yet, things are just being talked about. Avoid the news. Wait for clarity and remember lots of people love you.
  3. Refrain from internecine strife. We face a complex problem, with no single factor as the root cause. In fact we don’t need to find a root cause, as we are many and the paths to solution myriad and diverse. This is normal. Democracy is messy but does not need to be destructive over time.
  4. Optional, depending on your resources of time and money, when you are ready, choose an action near you, suited to you, and useful no matter what. I’m thinking of volunteering for literacy in a local high school with a largely Latino student body.
  5. We have heard, “Watch for the helpers.” Still apt. But also, “Watch for the fighters” So you can follow the lead of the honorable and trustworthy.
  6. Hope, with gritted teeth.
  7. As always, drink a lot of water and eat some vegetables, the more the better.

I’ll keep posting about clothes, flowers, travel and joy and what matters to me. It’s now true, of course, that what matters, more than ever, includes our governance and social policies.

My thoughts and dearest wishes to you all.

43 Responses

  1. The great news is that our republic has survived this next year , for 250 years.I am sure our founding fathers would be amazed that it resembles at all what they intended it to be. We will survive and flourish because that’s what we do best as Americans. Change is an inevitable part of life and the pendulum swings both ways . It will be fine. Life is good.

    1. I will hope that you are right, despite the language around law enforcement, the military, voting rights, and “third terms.”

  2. You are the eternal optimist and I appreciate that. I, on the other hand, have always been the cynic. I blame my mother for that. So I hope we survive the next four years, or more if term limits change.

    1. Sorry about your mom xox

      Even my optimism is muted right now. It is about whether we have a free and fair election in two years, and four years, and if the information infrastructure can evolve to serve useful facts, rather than gossip items that reinforce emotional realities, to a larger population.

    1. Thank you, Paula. Would it be OK if I carry fearfully, but carry on all the same? Probably going to have to be that way for a little while;)

  4. Love your point 4. There is indeed more than one way to do the right thing.

    Very much looking forward to your coming posts in all their flavors. XO

  5. Hugs to you, Lisa. I still can’t gather my thoughts enough to manage much more right now.

    Avoiding the news has been a necessary measure for my mental health in times past, and I think it’s called for in the present time. Thank you for the reminder.

    Be kind to yourself and try to enjoy your weekend. We shall persist. xoxox

    1. I too am avoiding the news, at least as it comes from the news outlets I used to rely on. FWIW, I’m finding The Guardian to be a good source.

  6. You people live in an elite bubble. So many were suffering under the Biden/ Harris regime. The people have spoken!

    1. Pamela, unlike Betsy’s comment, yours meets my comment policies. So let me address what you say. 1) I don’t know what you mean by elite. Wealth? The wealthy support Trump, often, Educated? The uneducated often support Biden. Urban v, rural? If you mean urban, I can agree with you. Often people in urban environments come to a common understanding. 2) First, there was no regime. It was a presidential term with a vice president in the role of a vice president. Second, what kind of suffering are you referring to? Emotionally? I can agree. The pandemic left an enormous debt of suffering, and groups of people often raged at each other, which has been painful.

      Health? Lots of leftover issues from COVID. However, the CDC reports that the uninsured rate in America declined 26% percent between 2019 and 2023. Financially? This would require a separate post, but as I understand it, with of course only the 3 economics courses I took in my MBA program, reputable economists agree that the inflation of the 2020s was caused by supply chain interruption of the pandemic, pandemic stimulus, and historically low interest rates. This doesn’t mean that people didn’t suffer, only that the causes of the inflation were rooted in the pre-2020 era.

      Finally, have the people spoken? Approximately 65% of eligible voters voted. Of those, just over 50% voted for Trump. So, yes, unless my math is off, 32.5% of the voting public have spoken.

      I in no way mean to discount people’s pain and suffering. It has been a terrible several years. But it’s clear to me that people are attributing the causes of that suffering to the wrong things. They are making emotional decisions, and anger for many feels better than fear or grief. I myself find data comforting. Data from reputable sources. And yes, perhaps those reputable sources can be called elite, because they have history and knowledge, but history and knowledge doesn’t necessarily make us cruel.

      1. Thank you Lisa. You said this much better than I could have. I am devastated by what I believe the next four years will bring. I am not reacting to pundits but to what the ex and future president actually SAYS. I veer from anger to despair. Your words help me to regain balance.

  9. I spent several hours at the dentist last week, waiting for my crown to be fabricated, and listened to a bunch of podcasts on the NYT site. There was one in “The Runup” titled “One Voter to Understand Trump’s Win” that I thought was articulate. I also liked “It’s Time to Admit America Has Changed” and “Trumpism is Not a Fad.”

    I don’t necessarily agree with the viewpoints, but it helps me to be empathetic with the people who took a different view on things. I was glad to see that 7 out of 10 states that had ballot measures about Women’s healthcare right were affirmative of their right to control their own bodies.

    All the same, I am not ready for RFK to head Health & Human Services!

    1. At this point I’m not finding much empathy. For people who really suffered, absolutely. For people who had a crisis fueled by resentment and the need to “other” to build their self esteem, not so much.

    1. The Bliss family, on my father’s maternal side, had that in their yacht china motto. At this point I feel I’m lucky to be sliding sideways LOL.

    1. You are not alone. My current motto is Act Locally, Fight Nationally, and Hope Globally. We aren’t the only country in the world and I hope that others can take the global stage and advocate for democracy and human rights.

      1. Well said, Lisa! Americans must do what they can, although it now looks like there will be Republican/MAGA trifecta, not counting the Supreme Court. So it may be very difficult for those who do not agree with the new Administration that’s be sworn in Jan 20/2025 , to make their voices heard or to exert much influence right away. But there are Congressional elections in 2 years (all members of the House of Representatives will be up for re-election, along with 33 Senators, and a number of other municipal and state elections) so there’s plenty of opportunity to initiate action in preparation for them. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2026_United_States_elections

  13. I’m Canadian, so I leave it to Americans to comment on their political situation. But there is one issue that affects us all, whatever country we live in, whatever government is in power: climate change (here I’m making a scientific observation, not a political comment).
    If you can, start protecting yourself and your family, and gently warning your friends about steps to take in the face of what looks like an inevitable rise in global temperatures. This is due to several factors which I’m sure you are all familiar with, and I don’t want to get into any political debates here. If you live in California, like our dear Lisa, it will likely mean more extreme weather events – droughts, scorching heat and/or torrential rainfalls – I believe your state has climate forecasts for the next decade and beyond under several best-case and worst-case scenarios.
    Correct me if I’m wrong, but I believe the same thing is true for all 50 states.
    Can you look into what can you do to make your home and landscape more weather-resilient? Where I live, climate change means shorter winters, but also extreme summer and fall weather events such as both drought and cataclysmic rainfalls, all of which we had this year and the last. Our municipality has detailed plans we can implement now to mitigate these events, in the face of our changing climate. so I feel more empowered, regardless of the results of political elections.
    I have no influence at all on American politics, but to feel less powerless, I have to start by acting locally. Remember the old adage, act locally, think globally?
    Canadian or American, Democrat or Republican, we all breathe the same air, drink the same water, burn under the same sun, freeze in the same winter storms, and heartbreakingly lose what’s important to us in extreme weather situations.
    If it helps you to feel you have more agency and more control of your life, prepare and take action now to protect yourself and your loved ones under these changing and adverse climactic circumstances – it could be your gift to the future. I’m sure your state government has information applicable to your region, and I hope it will useful to you and your family. If you wish to act on a larger scale, there are plenty of organizations through which you can be a change agent.
    Happy Thanksgiving!

    1. Such a great comment. I’m from the Deep South and lost my family home in a tornado in 2020, so this is especially meaningful to me. I never remember the constant alerts and horrible tornado outbreaks that we now face throughout the spring happening when I was young. Extreme weather events are indeed becoming more extreme, and the importance of acting to mitigate the harms can’t be overstated. Thank you, Martine. ❤

      1. Jess, I am very sorry for the loss of your family home. What a sense of rootlessness and heartbreak this must engender! Rebuilding is a slow effort, and I hope your have family and friends and neighbors to lend you their support in this endeavour. Wishing you hope and healing, Martine

    2. Absolutely act locally. I spend last week, after the results were clear, working to keep as many heritage trees in my little suburbs as possible, all the while supporting new, denser housing development near our train station. We can help other Americans at the grassroots level, through volunteering, donating and activism, but helping the planet takes a long range view.

      1. What a great endeavour – keeping your area’s heritage trees alive and healthy – trees are the “lungs of the earth”, and every step you take is vital (even if the steps are individually small, they all add up over time, and think of the multiplier effect when done en masse)!
        Yes, you are right that helping the planet takes a long range view – but people who are retired and have time, talent, energy and education to be pro-active are the exact individuals who can, and should to be taking that view. So fight on for what’s right, in all the domains important to you: https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/43959/say-not-the-struggle-nought-availeth

  14. Thank you Lisa for sharing your plan. I’m still trying to wrap my head around the voters who think the price of eggs and bread will be lower with the next administration and that’s the rationale for their vote.
    I am a caucasian female of a certain age and already feeling the side eye looks from those wondering how I voted. Guess I won’t be wearing anything red for the next four years. Hope with gritted teeth.

    1. I find it all easier to understand in light of the broken information infrastructure overall. People believe the information that feels real to them, and the information delivery system, and education systems, are struggling. I also wish I had a t-shirt that said something like Save The Planet And Other People Too.

  15. Thank you for your comments and thanks to all who wrote their thoughts. It is good to know there is a community of support out there as we try to process what the future holds.

    1. You’re welcome. And I send my thanks to all the readers and commenters. I agree, the more we remember that in fact on a national popular vote level Trump barely eked out his majority, the more we can remember there are a LOT of us out here.

  16. I was prepared, it wasn’t a surprise when the “unimaginable” came through on election night. I wasn’t even hoping. I’d avoided the news in the runup, but I can’t get enough evaluations/postmortems/analyses now that the thinkers and the writers have set pen to paper.

    I have lapped it up and they have taught me a lot, especially about myself and my blind spots. And about the passions that drove the winning vote. As I yammered on your blog last week, I just want to Understand. Like Rose ahead of me in line here, I’ve found serious analytical writing on NYT. And you have one Commenter already proving so many writers’ points about being aware of the constant hum of class divisions, ie the separating out of the the “elites.”

    Looking forward to more analyses in the week ahead. And thank you Lisa for including us in your “reaching out and checking” in mission.

    xoxo

  17. Thank you for all this. It’s important to know there are others out there, feeling this heartbreak. I have spent much of the past 100+ days listening to MSNBC and associated podcasts. Now it’s hard to go there. I will get back to it. We need to rest and restore ourselves, then continue to fight.
    I miss Kamala’s inspiring speeches. She fought so hard. We must carry on.

  19. Yes to all of your seven points. And a question: when you go back to teaching Latino students, could you tell us about it occasionally, aolngside the food, clothes and travel? I remember you used to do this a few years ago, and I found your posts about your experiences very inspiring. It might also be a personal approach to this “elite” question (i.e. class divide).

  20. Excellent post, Lisa. I am enjoying the conversation among all of us. Thank you for nurturing this platform and cultivating such a lovely community.

  21. “6. Hope, with gritted teeth.”

    These last few days have been torment – the things he’s doing, saying, smirking, proposing, nominating. But I’m gonna try to hope because you said to, and because you said “5. Watch for the fighters….and follow” and, I’d follow you into the fire of any battle. This is a BIG fire.

    1. I understand. I am avoiding any media that will tell me what he’s doing beyond the simple facts. Analysis is torture right now; pundits are hell. I am looking for fighters, still, and they are starting to come out of the woodwork. First up, the usual suspects, i.e. the ACLU, Indivisibles (Ezra Levin and Leah Greenberg), and my local Swing Left groups. More hope might be found if you try to imagine all these malevolent Cabinet clowns in a meeting together, unable to collaborate;)

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