Sickened.

Today I am reeling.

I’m exhausted.

The political news of the last few days is literally making me ill. My stomach is permanently queasy. No matter how much sleep I get I don’t feel rested. My mind is churning with images and sound bytes that should never, ever be a part of public discourse.

The final straw was an interview I just heard on National Public Radio, with two different women who support the GOP candidate in spite of the events since Friday. Women. Who are not concerned with the hideous, rape-culture words spewed from the infantile mouth of their candidate. Women who argued that they’ve heard female friends at “bachelorette parties” speak in a similar, raunchy way. Women who, apparently, have internalized the sexist, woman-hating culture in which we live. Because they don’t understand that when a man says he can “grab them by the pussy” and “do whatever he wants because he’s a celebrity,” it’s a whole different ball game. No matter what kind of raunchy talk a group of women might engage in, no males are threatened by it. But women have FOREVER been threatened, injured, had their lives irreparably damaged, even killed, due to the actions that flow out of those kinds of words from men.

I am ashamed of a large swath of our population, both men and women, who continue to support and defend this evil.

I have to take a break. I’m retreating into my family. My husband and three children understand the evil of this kind of talk. Their texts and conversations over the last few days have given me hope. I’ll spend as much time as possible in virtual and face-to-face time with my family lifelines, seeking out things to laugh about, taking comfort in their sanity and in our shared love.

I need a break.

Perhaps my next post will be about bunnies and puppies.

 

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