Sugar Skulls, Black Eyes, and the Horror of Trump

On Friday night I found myself crushed into the middle of a dia de los muertes themed dance floor, in a club for the first time in Beyonce knows how many years, writhing along to too-loud music and trying to escape the bump and grind grasp of sugar-skull-painted dudes behind me.

I was there to watch my little sister Claire perform with her dance group Subscura, and it was unreal. Watching this person I’d seen grow from a newborn to a toddler to a child to a teenager, always strong, often lost, finally come into herself onstage as a lithe, vibrant and incredibly powerful woman – I have no words. I just kept screaming “That’s my SISTER!” over and over again. I was so, so proud.

In news of lesser importance but greater ridiculousness, also this past weekend I was pulling Olive’s old crib mattress out of storage when I lost grip of said crib mattress and punched myself in the face. Yes. This may take top spot as my most ridiculous self-inflicted injury, stealing it from the time I bruised my big toe by dropping a bottle of kombucha on it. My right hand slipped and swung back – still in a fist because I was holding my keys – and I socked myself directly in my right eye. Traces of the black eye still linger – thank god for makeup!

And finally, it’s US election day. If you follow me on Twitter (or if you know me at all, having read this blog for any length of time) it’ll come as absolutely no surprise that I am 100%, nay, 1000% for Hillary Clinton.  Not because she’s the less shitty of two shitty candidates (this false equivalency drives me insane) and not just because she’s a woman, either (although goddamn, these stories of women born before we earned the right to vote casting their vote for the first female presidential nominee….how can you not be overcome with emotion at that?).

I’m a proud Canadian, but if I could vote, I would be voting for Hillary Clinton because she’s more than empty, blustering rhetoric, she’s spent over thirty years backing her words with actions. She’s intelligent, competent, bold and experienced. She fights for woman’s rights and gets the job done.

As for Trump? I have no words. Americans, you guys understand that the rest of the world is watching you like, “What the actual fuck?”, right? It’s terrifying how he has pulled back the curtain to expose such a hotbed of simmering racism, anger, misogyny, and intolerance. Make no mistake, Trump didn’t create this sentiment, but he did use his position, his power, and his grandstanding to fan those red-hot coals into flames that threaten to torch every step of progress the US has made in the last 100 years.

It’s not hard to understand why people are so angry, for over a hundred and fifty years the United States has been governed by white men. If Hillary Clinton wins today this will mark the third term held by someone other than a white man. Many people feel threatened, angry, and impotent in the face of what they see as their country being taken away from them. But the US doesn’t belong to white men only, and it’s absolutely essential that it’s governing power should reflect the needs, histories, experiences, and perspectives of all its citizens, not just those who have historically held the power.

Change is tough, scary, necessary. Good luck today, Americans! We’re all holding our breath and crossing our fingers for you.