Election results are in, and Trump has been elected president again. I thought I would want to stay in bed and cry all day today, but I don’t. I felt pulled to come to my corner coffee shop. I’m crying a little bit here, but not as much as I did yesterday before we knew the outcome.
Last time Trump was elected president it came as such a shock. In a different coffee shop on that morning, I cried with a bearded stranger. I felt helpless, weak, and scared.
Today, though, I feel a renewed sense of clarity. Our nation is not the place I hoped and dreamed it would be. I see that even more clearly today. For me, this election was about human rights, especially women’s rights. For others it was not. Other people don’t see it that way.
But this coffee shop is bustling and full of people who do see it that way. We’re here, talking to each other occasionally, but mostly sitting in our little bubbles and doing our work. I feel a warmth in our togetherness, an undercurrent of camaraderie. I am grateful that it is not pandemic times anymore, and that we can take comfort in our togetherness. I know the people around me share my values and beliefs– I hear them all around me talking about those values and beliefs.
So what do we do next? How do we move forward with a president we despise? A president who is a criminal, a bigot, and an abuser? Well, we’re Portlanders, and Portlanders will fight, I know that. We’ll keep standing up and shouting for what we believe in. We’ll keep speaking out.
As for me, I wondered how I would move forward, how I would be able to get out of bed this morning, how I would be able to stare down the barrel of four more years of a Trump presidency. The answer that came to me this morning and was very simple: write through it.
I will write through it. Make art. Use my voice. Do good work. Connect with others and deepen my commitment to my community and my country. I’ll keep going. We’ll keep going together.
Michelle Folk Johnson 