Hope

I think, like many of you, Gentle Reader, that you must by now be very fatigued with all the news about the Dump (aka Donald Trump).  And I am really sick of writing about him.  I do feel inclined to make token mention of the illustrious president-elect, if only to provide context to my blogpost today.  I have also two recent deaths in mind: Leonard Cohen and Fidel Castro.

First, a little bit here about the Dump.  A friend recently emailed me an article, a rather crass piece of attempted hagiography, written as a cv in praise of the Dump, citing his pedigreed upbringing, privileges and popularity.  Apparently, my friend seems to believe that these advantages could make him a good president.  Here are some of the howlers: his weight is underestimated by forty pounds; he is praised for his great and complex natural hairstyle (it's really a toupee and looks rather like a dead cat lying on his head).  I almost lost my breakfast, and other meals of the day, when I came to the part about his love for women and enjoyment of sex.  Oh, yeah, like where he likes to grab the gals when he's forcing his tongue down their throats, and we won't mention here the many women who have come forward about his attempted sexual assaults on them.

So much for that.  Many of us are clinging to hope as the likelihood of a very dark and troubled presidency looms over us.  I for one am going to continue hoping.  They have found that Hillary Clinton won two million more of the popular vote than the dump, and there is even the hope that this could go to court and maybe even overturn the Dump presidency before he is installed.  Meanwhile, here in Canada, we have Prime Minister Junior, that is, Justin Trudeau, Canada's own little white Obama.

Recently I heard of Justin Trudeau and the Dump being compared to Bambi and Godzilla, so small wonder that junior would want to make nice with the monster as quickly as possible. 

Still, give me Trudeau over Harper (and Mulcair) and Obama over Trump.  We have to cling to hope and not allow the forces of darkness to hobble us.  Even if people in positions of power turn out to be dangerous douchebags we still have to live our lives and in many ways we might still have to live our lives as though they don't even exist, which is to say we are going to have to work and live together more as a community and start taking much better care of one another.  By the same token, as long as we still enjoy freedoms of press and expression we will go on holding their feet to the fire.

I am reminded of the broken hope for Cuba that Fidel and Che had offered through the revolution and how it all went sideways as what began as a beautiful uprising of the people into a brutal and violent charnel house, transforming Fidel and Che into butchers worthy of the ravages of Pinochet.  I do not deny that Fidel did much for Cuba, with their wonderful education and public health systems.  It is also clear what he did to his people, those who opposed him and how many thousands of lives were brutally ended and thousands more destroyed because opposition would not be accepted or tolerated.

In conclusion I would like to remember Leonard Cohen who said that there are cracks in everything and that's how the light gets through.  I have hope that regardless of the dark, frightening and scary times that we are going through, that light is going to shine through the cracks, and Gentle Reader, you and I could well play a role in this.