On November 8th, I was lucky enough to attend a party thrown by the US Embassy for the election. It began at 8pm and went all night, with the intention to declare a winner and wrap up with a buffet breakfast in the morning. Little did I know that the night would end the way it did...
We showed up at the Westin downtown after a long day of parent teacher conferences. Those of us coming from the school were exhausted, but pumped at the idea of electing our first female president. Who wouldn't want to stay and eat drink and be merry on the dime of the US Government?
There was heavy security to get in to the soiree, but thanks to the school's close connection with the Embassy, those of us who were interested in attending got in no problem. There were at least a couple hundred people there, and both sides of the aisle were represented. It was held in a large ballroom with multiple screens up with CNN, BBC, Fox News and other outlets reporting the minute by minute action of the night. It wasn't until about midnight that the results started coming in, and in the meantime they had plenty of food, American characters to take pictures with, trivia and activities to participate in.
I also took some time to chat with the Ambassador, Paul W. Jones (not to be confused with John Paul Jones which is what I call him when I'm not in his company). I introduced myself and invited him to the school to be part of our Hour of Code activities. We haven't nailed down a specific time yet, but it appears that he will be coming (his right hand lady happens to be a mom of two ASW students.
It was really a great party - lots of good energy, networking and hanging out learning about all things election. It was a lot of fun... until it wasn't.
Sarah and I got a room at the hotel for the night as I'm too old to do anything close to an all night party - and we had school the next day. So, we decided to go up around 1 am and take a nap, to return for the victorious acceptance speech about 3 or so when it was expected to happen. As can be assumed, I didn't wake up to go back down to the party, I'm a bit of a wuss like that, but I was awake about every 30 to 45 minutes throughout the night. One of the perks of having a hotel room is that we were able to get CNN on the television on mute all night. I would wake up, look at the lower left of the television screen, check the electoral college #'s and go back to sleep. It was not the best way to get my beauty rest, but it seemed to work to keep me plugged in. Unfortunately, it was a cat and mouse game that no one really expected. There was the early Trump lead, the balance of 185 to 195 with Florida and Pennsylvania still out there. And then Florida, Pennsylvania, North Carolina and Ohio all came in... and the morning darkened.
After staring at each other in disbelief and scared for what the implications of the outcome were, Sarah and I went down for breakfast before returning to school.
The mood of the room was decidedly quieter than when we left the night before. Admittedly, many of those still in attendance had in fact been there all night, and had ebbed and flowed with the electoral college votes.
That day at school was probably one of the worst days I've ever experienced. Many of the staff at the school (as I'm sure people were throughout the country) were stunned. There were tears, silence, anger, fear, disappointment, embarrassment and general disbelief. I will say that all things considered, I was more of a Bernie fan than Hillary. She is not without fault, nor is she perhaps the best person to have been the first female president. Without hesitation though, I threw my entire support behind her over the misogynist pig who was in fact elected.
My biggest concern rests in the fact that now that he has been elected, all of the statements he made have now been given validity. He will be the face of our country on an international level (which is far from understood by many of the non-Americans I've spoken to), the representative of our great nation as he tweets, demeans and dehumanizes factions of the country's population. I just don't get it. I understand that the establishment needs to be revisited and that there are obviously people who would like to see a significant shift in how the government operates. I get that. He won, I get that. But I can't wrap my head around people who would elect to put him in charge. He has incited fear in the population, and unleashed racist hate activities -- that is not a leader.
I'm not looking to pick a political fight here. I am not looking for comments sharing how I should get over it and get behind him. I won't. I never will support him. In fact, I see me taking a more active political role (even from afar) to ensure that this NEVER happens again.
It's really made me stop to think if the US is a place I can return to live some day. At this point, with the election of Donald Trump, I am disappointed in my country, embarrassed to be an American, 99% less likely to have kids to be raised in this world, and sure as hell not moving home while he is in office. *end rant.
