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The Perks of Being an Artist

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I Just Spent Three Days With Trump-Voters

17 Thursday Nov 2016

Posted by emilypageart in culture, Uncategorized

≈ 4 Comments

Tags

daily show, election, fox news, moving forward, npr, politics, rush limbaugh, Trump, vote

I had an interesting last few days. I spent Sunday through Wednesday in a cabin in Boone, NC steeped in art, laughter, love, and Trump-voters. I know. You didn’t see that last one coming, did you? Well, maybe you did because of the title. Should’ve thought that one through better.

Every year, S and I rent a cabin for a couple nights in November to get away from life. We explore the local towns and woods, drink too many chai lattes, soak in a hot tub, watch bad TV, and I do some plein air painting. This year, we invited 2 couples to come with us. The one pair are a couple northerners who now reside in Raleigh and who we’ve known for about 5 years now. They are also black. He’s an ex-cop turned real estate agent. She’s an ex-correctional officer turned stay-at-home mom. We do Thanksgiving with their extended family every year. The other couple are new to each other – as in, they were just married last year – but we’ve known the husband for about 10 years or so. They live in FL, though he’s originally from South Africa. Yes, he has a fantastic accent. And they’re all Republicans. And they’re my friends. And I love them.

If you’ve been reading this blog for any amount of time, you know I’m pretty damn liberal. I voted for Bernie in the primary and Hilary in the general election. I am torn up about the thought of Trump being our next president. It literally makes me sick to my stomach when I think about it too long – and I don’t mean “literally” in the new millennial way that really means “figuratively.” So I was nervous going into this getaway. I decided I was not going to bring up politics.

Yeah, right. Like I could help myself. But here’s the thing, y’all. We need to be talking about this shit. Together. With people who don’t agree with us. If we’re in an echo chamber of people who think exclusively like us, things will get worse. And less productive. And more violent. We’ll all just be more broken. When Obama was elected and the Republican establishment chose to make their party platform the goal of not letting him accomplish a single thing – even if it would normally have gotten bipartisan support – that helped no one. The gridlock became overwhelming. We cannot respond the same way. So, if there’s any hope for our country, we need to talk with each other, not at each other. And so my friends and I did. They talked about why they voted for Trump – the economy and their distrust of Hillary. I listened. I countered with my own views and tried to explain why people were protesting and why we’re so devastated. When one of them said that Fox News wasn’t biased, I did my best not to slit my wrists, realizing that he’s in his own echo chamber. Instead, I proposed that, for two weeks, he would watch The Daily Show and listen to NPR, and in exchange, I would watch Fox News and listen to Rush Limbaugh.

I started by watching Hannity last night and just Fox News in general this morning. It’s already not going well. I may end up bald at the end of this. But I’m going to continue. I want to understand the world view which will have control for at least the next four years. If we don’t understand it, we can’t effectively manage it or mitigate its negative effects. We must not meet hate with hate. Am I still appalled and livid and utterly disheartened that a racist, sexist bully won? Yes. A thousand times yes. But it’s done. Now we have to figure out how to make it better.

So I’m going to keep trying to understand, while at the same time trying to make my Trump-voting friends understand my fears. They’re not stupid or cruel people, but they’re not hearing my viewpoint being given to them in a respectful manner (perhaps because we’re so shocked at Trump’s hate speech that we’ve felt the need to shout back). Now is the time to roll up our sleeves and work on this democracy to make it a more peaceful, inclusive, and prosperous place. We’ll stand up against the hate that won the day, but we can’t add our own to it.

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Sitting Among the Shards

10 Thursday Nov 2016

Posted by emilypageart in culture, gratitude, Uncategorized

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

clinton, donald, election aftermath, Hillary, politics, rebuilding, Trump

I’ve been sitting with the election results for a couple days now, and finally feel like I can talk about it. This has been a deeply, deeply painful election season, as you all know. And, as most of you know, I’m pretty damn liberal, so losing kind of sucks. But my side has lost before, and I’ve accepted it and moved on, looking toward future elections. On election night, I have never cried*, but this year I did. I lay in bed after it became clear that this country had elected an authoritarian man** with absolutely no experience or credentials in government over a woman who was more qualified than any other candidate in history. They chose to tacitly approve a man who has spewed hatred and vitriol against Muslims, Mexicans, and women (among others). A man who bragged about grabbing women by the pussy. A man who denigrated gold star families and advocated the use of torture. They “overlooked” his personal faults because he was an outsider and a business man who would take care of the little guy and save the economy. Never mind that he was able to provide almost no information about policy, instead just saying he’ll slash and burn everything he doesn’t like and replace it with something “really, really good.” Never mind that he was born rich, was gifted millions of dollars and countless business connections by his daddy, and declared bankruptcy multiple times. Never mind that he’s never known what it was like to be the little guy and has repeatedly shafted the little guy by not paying for the services they rendered. Never mind that he hasn’t paid taxes in years, thus screwing the little guy out of good schools, good roads, and good healthcare. Never mind that he has perpetrated scams (like Trump University) against the little guy and pushed multiple business ventures that outright failed. Never mind that his products are made overseas, taking jobs away from the little guy here. Never mind the multiple sexual abuse allegations over the years. Never mind that most economists think the few policies he has outlined will put us back into another recession. The cognitive dissonance happening here is staggering. All evidence to the contrary, this man will be the savior?

Of course, I knew that racism was not dead in America. Of course, I knew that sexism and misogyny were deeply ingrained in our culture. But when the people who think that way constitute half of our population? I didn’t realize that. And I am heartsick about it. This is not the country I thought I knew.

And no, I didn’t think Hillary was going to swoop in and fix everything. She’s not perfect by a long shot. But she was overqualified. Yes, she made a dumbass move with the private email server, but that’s the worst thing you can hurl at her? I get that Bernie supporters were frustrated by the primary. I was, too. I voted for Bernie, but I think it was smart of Hillary to adopt the policies that Bernie was advocating. She listened to what the people in her party wanted and included it. That’s a good thing. Listening is good. People should do a lot more of it. This was a woman who had devoted her entire life to public service.

And – and this is no small thing for me – she was a woman. A woman damn it! Finally, there would be someone in the oval office who looked like me. Finally, I would see that anyone could be president. Little girls would grow up knowing that the “you can be anything you want to be” talks were true. Because, let me tell you, I grew up knowing that wasn’t reality. My parents were both feminists, but the real world was a lot harsher and sent very different messages. I was ready for America to say that women were valuable for something other than the shape of their bodies. But no, instead they voted for a man (who is no supermodel himself) who constantly denigrated women for how they looked, for the fact that they menstruated or needed to use the bathroom (I know, Donald, it’s disgusting: women should never have to pee). He rated women based on how fat they were or ugly they were. That was the measure of their worth. That, apparently, is the measure of my worth. The title of this post is “Sitting Among the Shards.” I had hoped that it would be the shards of glass from a shattered glass ceiling. That, obviously, is not the case. America voted for misogyny and hatred instead. They sent a clear message that women are not respected or valued for anything but their body parts.

So I cried that night. And I cried yesterday. But today? Today I am resolved. America can be better than this. This is my country, too. When I saw that Hillary actually won more votes and only lost because the electoral college system, I was heartened a bit – not a lot, because almost half the voting public still chose Donald. But still, more than half chose to give women a voice, to give sanity a voice, to give love a voice. And people are protesting  because they want to let women and minorities know that they do count and they are loved and we will fight for them, too. I am grateful for the people who look for the value and worth of their neighbors.

This is their country. This is my country. This is our country. And as we fight for women and minorities, we will bring the little guy up with us. We must rise above party politics and try to improve everyone’s lot in life, even if they don’t always agree with us. We must not do what Republican leaders opted to do when Obama was elected – we must not block Donald at every turn out of spite. If he surrounds himself with people who have good ideas and he proposes good legislation, we must enact it. Making him fail for the sake of failing will not accomplish anything. Of course we must stand up to bad ideas. Even if the little guy won’t give us credit for working on his behalf, we must work for him anyway, in part because the majority of us are him, and in part because it’s the right thing to do.

This is our country.

*Actually, that’s not true. I cried when Obama won for the first time, because I was SO proud of my country for electing a person of color to be POTUS.

**Please give me credit for having refrained from using the term “cheetoskinned fucktwit manpig” to describle DJT for the entire post above.

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Crumping

17 Wednesday Feb 2016

Posted by emilypageart in culture, dance, humor, Uncategorized

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

Crump, Cruz, dance, hip hop, Krump, politics, Trump, Truz

While I wholeheartedly fear either a Trump or a Cruz presidency, I kind of wish they’d run together as President and Vice President. This is due entirely to the fact that I would like to refer to their ticket as the Crump candidacy. I would like to hear newscasters referring to two rhythmless old white dudes as Crump. And every time, I would picture all the krumpers out there giggling:

 

I’d say they could also be called Truz, but that sounds too much like there might be actual “truth” in the vitriol they spew.

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Bernie

09 Friday Oct 2015

Posted by emilypageart in humor

≈ 4 Comments

Tags

Bernie Sanders, Bert and Ernie, Gonzo, Muppet, Muppet for president, politics, Trump

Is it wrong that I want Bernie Sanders to be the next president because his name is a combination of Bert and Ernie? Basically, I want a Muppet to be the next president, and this seems as close as it’s gonna get to that happening. Sigh, if only Gonzo would run. I would love to see a debate between Trump and Gonzo. That would be absolutely increditastic. You know what else would be increditastic? More bourbon.

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Emily Page

Emily Page

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