Waking Up This Morning
My kid and I scared, confused and adrift after the surprise election of Donald Trump
As a professional journalist for many years, I’ve always stuck to rigorous reporting and journalism when it comes to this newsletter.
Presenting such factual news is why I started it in the first place, several years ago.
So that's why I already posted a story earlier about the outcome of the 2024 election.
But I’m also an American and a human being, and like so many I woke up this morning and I was…“stunned” is too inadequate and trite a word to describe how I felt. And continue to feel.
And proper journalism just can’t fully convey what’s happening today.
It’s closer to say that I was bewildered by what happened, the election of Donald Trump as president of the United States once again.
Bewildered because, yes, the data from polling and elsewhere seemed to confidently predict the election of Kamala Harris. But, honestly, it runs deeper than that. I’m bewildered how people could vote for not only an adjudicated criminal, but someone who spends much of his time babbling incoherently about Hannibal Lecter and shark attacks and publicly simulating oral sex with microphones. But also, honestly, someone so intent on looking to hurt others.
I'm also a mother of a teenager. A teenager who woke me up, looking sadder than I had perhaps ever seen.
I had finally gone to bed when the news looked grim, but before the election had become official.
It was my child who showed me on his phone that Trump had indeed crossed the 270-vote threshold needed to win.
Alex hugged me and put his head on my chest for a long moment before returning to the tasks of preparing for school.
I didn't have much to say to soothe my kid, as parents always try to do. And I still don’t.
Furthermore, I am the transgender mother of a child who himself is transgender.
Those facts clearly weigh on both of us as neither can know or comprehend what will happen as the next weeks, months and years unfold, as Trump has made clear that we are among the people he wants to hurt.
I'll just close with this: I suppose I'm most bewildered why anyone would want to hurt the two of us or anyone, really, who is just trying to make their way the best they can in this world.
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