I’ve been struggling with today’s gratitude post, something I tend to do when I’ve been sick. I’ve spent the week dealing with an upper respiratory infection. There were two days where I barely left my bed and one day of not moving far from the couch. As per usual, I still have a cough that is not dainty and discreet. It very much sounds like demons are trying to make their way out of my body even though I feel loads better. Which is the thing I should be grateful for this week.

Feeling better.

It’s rather an easy one.

I spent a lot of time away from the internet this week. I didn’t read the news or watch the news on TV. I didn’t post or take any pictures. I tuned the noise of the world out and I’ve been thinking a lot about division. How many times in a day do we hear the phrase “deeply divided country”? It has to be in the hundreds, this constant reminder that we should be at odds with one another. On one hand I see it clearly. During Trump’s presidency, he stacked the Supreme Court to his favor. The results of this has been to take away women’s rights to body autonomy and take away our rights to a clean environment. The list of the removal of rights is even larger if Trump is re-elected. He has plans to remove civil rights such as the same-sex marriage act, reduce the disabilities act and reduce federal employees like my friend Sarah who works for affordable housing. He plans to unfund basic scientific research that leads to life saving medicine. Technically, my job could be in danger. His list of removal of basic human rights is a long one. Those things are scary enough, but it is his ability to rile and incite hate and violence in his followers that truly terrifies me. He has found a way to, without addressing the specific needs of this mostly white group of people, turn their frustrations from being disenfranchised into rage. In a sense, he has created a new batch of terrorists. This rage has blinded these people from questioning his rhetoric and any possibility of civil discourse. [Side note: when’s the last time you checked on how your senators and representatives are voting? You can do that here: https://www.senate.gov/ I like to read the Daily Digest, like a newsletter of the day’s activities.]

They have fully drunk the Kool-Aid flavor of Us vs Them.

Yet, I can’t shake the idea of ‘deeply divided’ as being anything but a social construct, a 1984 tactic to keep all of us at odds with one another so we don’t ever question the rhetoric (or read that Daily Digest), nor do we make an attempt to work together. For a while now, all of that noise of constructed division has had me depressed. A week of isolation from the diatribe has me feeling less depressed and quite hopeful. I still believe that things can be better, but I also know that I do not have to engage with anyone so blinded with rage. It is a waste of my time to point out that allowing others to have those civil rights takes nothing away from them. My time is better spent reading that Daily Digest and staying in communication with my representatives and senators. My money is better spent supporting candidates who support equal rights and legislation that supports affordable health care and housing, and legislation that supports a cyclic economy for its benefits to the environment. My time is better spent breaking down the construct of ‘deeply divided’ with basic acts of kindness within my own community.

All that being said, I’m really grateful that Kamala Harris is going to be our first Black female President of the United States.