The First Year of "He Who Should Not Be Named"

Yep - I'm officially a year behind on the blog. I am owning it and doing my almost best (because I'm a realist) to get caught up. Let's be honest, I can get easily distracted and with all that's gone on in the last year its easy to understand how. Just call me Dory.

The first week of last November was a nail biter. I know many of my fans/friends/family on the west coast were really feeling confident (My mom & Dad included) that Mr. Wackadoodle Cheetoh Head could never become President of this great nation. My Mom and I talked about how there were too many strong women in America who would stand up against the ultimate chauvinist, how far we have come to make our voices heard and how even if they didn't like Hillary Clinton she was surely a better option than - He who should not be named!!

We talked a lot about it at school. We even had a school vote! Strangely enough the school decided to NOT to share the results as they thought it would create a divide amongst families in our community. "Accidentally" Mr. Hinkebein (Cod love him) gave out the results that Hillary won in the school election and once again we were feeling good about what the actually election outcome would deliver. We listened to some of the debates, the incredible speech given by Michelle Obama and many other stand up humans - still feeling good about the election just around the corner. Being that St. Louis is in the heart of the Midwest, we heard rumblings and projections that we thought impossible. We shuttered and refused to believe their words and kept on hoping. 

The morning of - we all awoke super early just to go with Mom and watch her cast THE vote. To see the electoral process in action and be as close as we could to history in the making. As it turns out we were not the only ones who wanted to get a jump on the day and so we waited and listened to what the other voters were saying. Being that our house was in a very RED community, we took the words in stride and were jittery with excitement about what we hoped the end of the day would yield.

To say we were excited to have a women in the running for President was an understatement! You see by our photos that we were not going down without a fight and this time we would be heard loud and proud!! Okay, so maybe Morty was a bit of a curmudgeon, but thats to be expected - right??

It's taken us a full year to really digest the outcome of our last Presidential election. It was a blow we never saw coming. It was a test that we thought we could easily ace but the result but ....Boy we were wrong! 

I have more questions and fears about our country than I did before November 2017 and the silver lining of that is that I will never again assume that we are all on the same page again. I will never assume the worst cannot happen or that the greater good is what we all want for each other. Progress takes work and the train doesn't just keep on chugging if you dont fuel it up. Ouch!

I hope that we will come away stronger from this disaster of Presidential term with more women lining up to vote and working to get more voters registered regardless of their hardships to make it happen. There is so much to be learned and so much do. Complacency is not an option. 

We must march, be heard and work work work. #ResistSTL

My Mom & I, Dr. Fuh, Mrs. Frisella & Maeve, Auntie Tiya, Dr. Park & Tessa, Mrs. Small & her girls and so many more of us marched and will continue work for equality and not given in the bullies in our lives.