Election 2016

Calling Grandmothers

/ njmyers / 6 Comments

One of the first things I decided to do after the 2016 election was to stop coloring my hair. In the months that followed, the light brown I’d adopted for the past 20 years, something close to the color I was born with, gave way to snowy white. I am delighted with my new look, the result of genes inherited from my white-haired father and grandparents.

I told friends that I’d been waiting to stop coloring my hair till I was pretty sure it was growing out all white rather than gray. But there were deeper reasons for choosing to go white at that particular time, even though I couldn’t articulate them at first. Continue reading →

Donald Trump, kickstarter

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img_3032We are selling our beautiful house in the Michigan woods and plotting a move to the nearby city of South Bend, Indiana. We have many reasons for doing this and we have been thinking about it for some time but what prompted us to take action, to actually put our beloved home on the market and begin the rollercoaster of real estate searches, showings, and offers, has a lot to do with the election of Donald Trump and the stunning, fast-moving stream of events since then. Continue reading →

Agony in the aftermath

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For my morning “devotions” I read two articles and tried to deal with the sense that I need to do something but I don’t know what it is. It is very frustrating, I feel not quite smart enough, a feeling I’ve often had in the past when dealing with huge, intractable problems like nuclear weapons and climate change.

I’m wondering whether the role I have to play has less to do with being smart than with being honest. Continue reading →

Don’t cry for me

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women

It helps to be out of the country.

It helps to get the news in one fierce shock rather than watching it unfold over hours like a slow-motion train wreck.

It helps to get the news in the morning rather than in the middle of the night.

It helps to get the news in hot sun rather than cold rain. Continue reading →

Why I’m with her, part two

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I have watched the Democratic National Convention every single night so far. I usually find political conventions boring but this one has kept me entertained. Watching has made me 95% proud to be a Democrat even though I’ve usually shunned party identification. If speeches are any gauge, this is the party of community, compassion, intelligence, humor, hope, and love. Continue reading →