I’m feeling so much relief today. An enormous weight has been lifted. Four years of constant vigilance is finally coming to an end.
As someone who was one of 21 defendants who sued Trump and won at the Supreme Court, I knew that I was probably on some enemies list. If Trump became some authoritarian dictator, there would probably be a knock on my door someday.
That fear is no more.
But I can’t help but think:
I’m a white, able-bodied, healthy American man of reasonable intelligence. I belong to the most privileged group of human beings who ever lived on this planet.
I realize that a bunch of my kind are despicable, whiny-ass babies who voted for the orange monster because their path is no longer paved with gold, but it’s true:
White, American men are privileged beyond measure. The past four years haven’t been nearly as hard on us.
Yet the burden for me has been very real.
But just imagine how my friends of color are feeling today. My Muslim friends. My friends and family in the LGBTQ community. The Dreamers. Undocumented immigrants. Women. Americans with preexisting conditions. Peaceful protesters.
All of them have lived in such fear for these past four years. The lifting of their burdens today must have been enormous.
Unfathomable.
Add to this my Jewish wife and our children. My Jewish friends and family. Say what you want about Trump supporting the Jewish community, but when Nazis marched in Charlottesville and chanted, “Blood and soil!” and “Jews will not replace us!” Trump called them “very fine people”
I worried about my Jewish family and friends.
Rightfully so, I think.
All of that has come to an end today. Millions of people can breathe a sigh of relief. Deeper and more profound than I will ever know.
I feel less burdened today. More hopeful for our country’s future. More optimistic about my fellow Americans.
But I am so damn happy for my friends and family who are members of groups who Trump has marginalized, threatened, groped, attacked, and openly despised.
This is a great day for so many.
