2017

Here we are. We have crossed the threshold into a new year and into a new political era.

I have written before that this is not a political blog (may I add, most of the time). But I am a grandmother and I feel obligated to give some thought to the future. Aside from climate and health, politics determines our future. And I feel uneasy .

May I say, this has been the most difficult post to write.

In all fairness, and I care about being fair, what can one say about something that has not yet happened, even if we have some strong indications. Waiting for events to actually happen can be deadly. I think of the modern horrors which I have experienced and also those suffered by other people. My family had the good fortune or perhaps the foresight to get out of France before the Nazi takeover. My husband and I have also had a close connection to Venezuela. Many of our friends were optimistic about the election of Hugo Chavez. The Venezuelan governments had not paid enough attention to the poor. Our good-hearted middle class friends thought that Chavez would improve the lives of the most deprived people. Sadly, Venezuela is now at the bottom of nations in all possible ways.

I have faith in the structure of the American government and I do not expect to have to flee. But we all know that our institutions have not always protected us and we have experienced some very troubling times . And as we are learning every day, some of us right, now have reasons to feel anxious every day . Do I really need to specify: young black men, illegal immigrants and others.

So what do you do about despair? Taking action is a good antidote. I marched in support of the ERA (Equal Rights Amendment), in several abortion rights marches, in a protest march when Kent State students were killed by the Ohio National Guard, and in shock when Martin Luther King was murdered. I’m glad I did and wish I had been free to join the great civil rights marches, but I had babies to take care of.

My daughter Tobi and granddaughter Lily, a junior in college, are planning to join the March for America in Boston. I asked Lily why she wanted to go. “ I want to be in a place with a lot of other people who feel the same way about the political climate, that is, that we won’t stand for regression, we will be watching, we won’t be quiet. I care about all the issues the march stands for, but especially women’s health, race and LGBT . I want to stand up for myself and for others I know who are not even comfortable coming to marches.”

I am so happy my daughter and granddaughter have chosen to be part of history .

Now as to the immediate future, what troubles me most is not what I may consider bad decisions by our new government, but making terrible mistakes. We are going to have a president who can’t keep his mouth shut. He has to respond to every trivial event, even a speech by an actress. Meryl Streep is not trivial, but does the next president of the U.S.A. really need to take time to respond to something she said and insult her at the same time. Is there any way we can take away his Twitter account. I am petrified he will say something inappropriate to the president of China Xi Jinging, or Kiu Jong-un of North Korea or Vladimir Putin. Such mistakes can lead to disasters. They have in the past. Then we will have to rely on his appointees and our legislators to repair the damage. We may not care for many of them, but we have to assume that those who have achieved high positions in their work can think and evaluate. As long as they are not prisoners of ideology, they can change their mind. Hopefully they will think hard about what is really the public good. That is my only hope.

And of course, we have to keep marching.