I’m back in the office after a holiday weekend spent in the hospital with my mother. That seems par for the course for the way 2017 has gone. It’s pretty much been a garbage fire on the world stage as well as personally. Let’s have a look at it:
We have gained:
One president who does not see me as a human being because I am 1. Queer, 2. Female, 3. Not Rich. At his side we have a vice-president who has said that people like me deserve to die. Together they and the GOP-at-large have set about trying to attack my A. Civil Rights, B. Healthcare, C. Income, and D. The rights of disabled persons I care about.
…..yeeeeeeeeeah. Great things, 2017.
We have lost:
Too much.
Too many good people, both for the world and, myself, personally.
The ability to feel safe in the country of my birth, where neo-nazis walk the streets and kill a woman and the president says “there’s a lot of good people” there. Where I receive rape threats and death threats with swastikas or pepe the frog emblazoned on them delivered to my inbox on a near-daily basis. More, on days when I have an article published.
On the more personal front, my mother has lost much of her independence after a broken hip (and subsequent complications with her hip replacement surgery) has removed what mobility a lifetime of psoriatic arthritis had left her with. She’s always been a very independent person, disabled or not, and this has had a significant impact on both of our lives as I have been suddenly flung into the deep end of being a caregiver for a disabled parent.
With the #Resistance and #MeToo, we have lost the willingness to put up with being violated on any front, we have stood up and stood strong. This is, perhaps, the one good thing this last year has brought: The certainty that we’re not going to take it anymore.
But by the time change will come (and it will), for many it will have been too late.
So to 2017, I say, Fuck off. Good riddance.
Dear 2018: Please be better. I have high hopes for you.