It was Election Day. For Five Days . . .

 It's all over now but the shouting.  And I'm am so very happy that Joe and Kamala prevailed.  I believe that we will be able to move forward now as a country.  If anyone can bring the two sides of our country together, it's them.  I celebrated with this:

 

 

Not surprisingly, Dump is acting like a toddler, insisting on filing lawsuits that have no merit and refusing to concede.  Recounts I understand - any candidate would request them in very close races - but he continues to double down on the lies he's been telling from the jump.  I was heartened to see some footage on CNN of Fox reporters telling their anchors that what the anchors were saying was not true.  It takes a lot of courage to stand up and speak truth to power.  

I was overcome when Wolf Blitzer announced that CNN had called PA for Joe and Kamala, and that they had won.  And I saw Van Jones' response live.  If you haven't seen this, you should.  

I am disheartened that close to half our country apparently wants no regulation and no government programs that help people.  That they would prefer to embrace conspiracy theories, fascism, and white supremacists is foreign to me.  I don't understand it.  I'm trying to listen - to be open to listen - but today two people I respected in an organization of which I'm a member said that they are going to be hanging out at an alternative social media site.  One of them described it as "the new Facebook."  I was not familiar with the site/app and I'm not going to give its name airtime here - but I looked it up.  It purports to be a site without censorship.  In reality (based on the research I did), it apparently has more rules than FB, and is a haven for alt-right rhetoric, conspiracy theories, anti-feminism, and anti-semitism.  In addition, about half its membership is made up of Saudi nationalists . . .  

This makes my heart hurt.  Particularly the anti-semitism.  I have many good friends who are Jewish.  My sweetheart is Jewish.

Anyway - the joy I feel about what I believe will be the saving of our democracy has a selfish component.  I have been increasingly worried about Medicare and Social Security, two programs I paid into my entire working life.  The current resident of the White House made it very clear that were he to be re-elected he was going to gut both of them.  I have been caught in a spiral of what that might mean for me since I'm about to avail myself of one of them and the other in about five years.  I realized that my retirement would be over.  I would have to find a job and go back to work again in order to have healthcare and to have enough money to live for the rest of my life.  Not a particularly exciting prospect.  With Joe and Kamala at the helm, I am no longer worried about this and it was like a huge weight literally lifted off my shoulders this morning.  I had a surge of energy, the likes of which I haven't felt in months.  In fact, the bathroom is now exceptionally clean . . .  ;-)  

I guess what I'm saying is that I feel like I have a life to look forward to again.  I had no idea how much the thought of my future being scuttled had been weighing on me.  I really didn't.  I do now.

So, it's time to keep moving forward.  With a spring in my step. 

Here's to you, President-elect Biden and Vice-president elect Harris.  I'm with you.  All the way.