Your neighbor looking for common ground with you, whoever you are,
and regardless of who you voted for
from an anonymous woman

I'm joyfully listening to an Aretha Franklin recording. I just finished talking to my daughter in Massachusetts. I wanted to check in with her post our election debacle. She spent all of November 2nd in New Hampshire talking to Republicans and helping people get to their polling places. She, along with a bunch of other folks, made a difference in that State. I asked her if she was depressed or upset. She said, there wasn't time to be in despair. She said she was reading old Wonder Woman comic books and getting inspired by the teachings espoused there.

I had to laugh and loved the image of her reading Wonder Woman comic books. Yesterday, November 3rd I went to bed at 4 p.m. I was too depressed to stay upright. My seven-year old son came and gave me cuddles. Today, I re-discovered my grateful and hopeful heart. I thought about waxing angry and sending in a furious diatribe about the racist election stealing policies of those in power. Any diatribe I write won't change what happened or what will happen in the future. I have to agree with my daughter. She continues to believe and work for a completely different arena and atmosphere to deal with all of this in.

I am still allowing myself to feel disappointed with the Democratic Party's folding and concessions. They don't have the answers and aren't the leaders we need or that we get. Who can I look to to clean up or lead us out of our mess? If it isn't the President and it isn't the Democratic Party. Who is it? It's me and it's you. It's our children. I just can't solve the huge problems of the world. I have to work in an arena that I can make a difference in.

My new post-election strategy is to call up the Evangelical, Baptist, Born-Again Christian churches locally, maybe even contact the local Right to Life group and try to start a dialogue right here where I live. I'm not ceding God or the idea of moral values to the people who maintain that they are the only ones who know what God wants. If I can't figure out a way to create common ground with the folks living right here in Humboldt County than I have no business expecting it of anyone else.

We have to start crossing the fear and hatred bridge. My task is to find a way to be human for those who think I am a crazy, amoral, liberal, wimpy let the terrorists get away with murder lunatic. Once I'm human to them then we can create common ground. The best way to fight angry fearful folks is to be loving, friendly and peaceful. It's more disarming than the best thought out arguments. How can I give into despair or anger when my daughter is reminding me that I can put on my Amazon bracelets and create a world of compassion and tenderness in the very center of the angry, ugly place I find myself in?

So, here I am, bracelet adorned, age 40. I might be calling on you. If you disagree with me let me know who you are. Let's chat. Let's be clear about who I am and what we are talking about. I am your definition of a bleeding-heart liberal. I believe in a woman's right to choose and make decisions about her body and her pregnancy. I believe Lesbian, Gay, Bi-Sexual, Transgendered or Questioning folks should have every single right heterosexual folks do and if they want a civil union or a marriage or neither I think they should have it. I'm a pacifist.

There's a bottomless bowl of condoms and dental dams in my back bathroom available for any teenager who wanders through my house to take and use. I'm Jewish. I am actively religious. I say prayers before eating. I sing my praises to the Divine weekly in community. I give thanks every single day, several times a day, for all the gifts the Holy One has blessed me with. I don't believe in cutting down old trees to make fancy decks or cabinets with. I don't believe in continuing our fossil fuel consumption orgy. I'm an environmentalist. I bring my grocery bags to the store and I re-use them. I don't believe in spanking, demeaning or cruel punishment of children. I'm an excellent cook and friend. I'm a wife. I'm a mom. I'm your neighbor.