On November 7th, 2018, I guzzled a glass of champagne, spilling more than a spoonful down the front of my Stacey Abrams for Governor t-shirt. I then logged into Facebook and wrote an immortal status. It read: It’s an extremely exciting time for Women. Women of diversity, LGBTQIA+ women, and Women of Color! HEAR US ROAR.
I was elated to celebrate the first Muslim congresswoman, Ilhan Omar, the first Native American congresswoman, Debra Haaland, the first Latina congresswomen from Texas, Veronica Escobar and Sylvia Garcia, and the youngest congresswoman in history, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, as well as so many other women who achieved glass-shattering feats during the election. It was an exceptional moment in democracy, liberalism, and women’s history. And let’s be honest, it was a little ray of hope during Trump’s radical reign.
Two years on and November 7th has once again rolled around. However, this election day is anything but exciting. It’s nauseatingly tense, frightening, and completely appalling. American democracy hangs in tatters from a leaning flagpole, while the Statue of Liberty silently weeps, and the American Bald Eagle has plucked its feathers, threatening to never fly again. This is what America has come to. With the blood-red Republican radicals and Trump loyalists tearing this country apart with choleric savagery, including an assault on women’s reproductive rights, intentions of abolishing social security and Medicare, voter suppression, and their brazen agenda to nourish white supremacy, it’s hard to not remember those school days when teachers misled us into thinking that Nazism was Germany’s problem. And since Hitler and his agents are all dead, we were told there was nothing left to fear.
Talking of school days, imagine living in a world that is supposed to be the best that it has ever been, and countries – such as America – pride themselves on advancement. Instead, we’re living in a country that’s blatantly dismissive of environmentalism, all whilst the billionaires are busy making exit plans to congregate on Mars before the earth expires.
We’re living in a country whereby Republicans have introduced 137 pieces of legislation that limit what teachers are allowed to teach. You guessed it, those bleeding, bloody, blithering red radicals are attempting to eliminate studies that incorporate race, gender, sexual orientation, and anything that opposes Christian supremacy. As someone who went to a Catholic school for six years, I know a thing or two about theology. That would be because my school – although a “Christian school” – made sure that its students were taught all world religions, atheism, and agnosticism, at GCSE level. It was essential learning if you wanted to graduate. So no, I’m not attacking religious studies, as long as we’re exposing our children to all faiths and non-faiths equally. This means that children should independently choose their own doctrines without bias or institutionalized pressure.
Christian supremacy is a terrifying thing. Americanized Christianity offers an alternative Jesus, which is simultaneously hilarious and harrowing. The Republican Jesus is usually several shades too white, carries an AK 47, and who’s often depicted with Trump’s face. Understandably, he’s also a non-compassionate and inhumane arsehole, which begs the question, how did that even happen? What happened to the scriptures whereby Jesus – the real Messiah - was an all-embracing, loving, empathetic, and forgiving liberalist, whose teachings opposed classism, fascism, and all that renders humans unequal? And what of the scriptures about not worshipping false idols? Those scriptures must be stuck at the border, lost to purposely never be found. And following Americanized Christianity with a gun-swinging Trump-Jesus, it’s the Republican agenda to teach students – especially adolescent girls – all that undermines, belittles, objectifies, and oppresses women in the guise of religious principles. Gross.
That is why today is such a nervous day. The election polls are agonizingly close and there’s predicted to be a submerging red wave. If that happens, America will no longer be considered a great nation, and one that beholds democracy at its very core, but will take its seat amongst other fascist nations, such as Russia, China, and North Korea. If that happens, my family and I will prepare to leave. We will not suffer under the Republicans' antiquated regime.
On November 7th, 2018, I wrote a post that started with the words, "It's an extremely exciting time for women." In 2022, the same can't be said. It's an unbelievably scary time for women.
“Women endure entire lifetimes of these indignities—in the form of catcalls, groping, assault, oppression. These things injure us. They sap our strength. Some of the cuts are so small they’re barely visible. Others are huge and gaping, leaving scars that never heal. Either way, they accumulate. We carry them everywhere, to and from school and work, at home while raising our children, at our places of worship, anytime we try to advance.”
-Michelle Obama
(Image from dreamstime.com)
Comments