Orange is the New America

So I took February off, and most of March, sort of watching and hoping things would even out. You know, on the national level. Things did not even out. Things continue, daily, hourly, to tax my capacity for horrified disbelief.
And yet, laundry needs to be folded, and lunches need to be packed, and lesson plans need to be written (oh, who am I kidding? I don't write lesson plans), and kids have birthdays, and kids have concerts, and there are buds on the trees, and life appears to go on (At least for the time being.
NPR told me that Lord Martin Rees, the British Royal-Grand-Sciency-Poohbah, predicts we have a 50% chance of a 'cataclysmic setback' in the next century...so...there's that). As much as I dislike the phrase 'the new normal,' that appears to be the rough beast that's slouching toward us.
So when this new normal catches up to us, as it inevitably will, let's remember that it belongs to someone else.
We are not these fearful, small-minded, nationalist bigots. We have the grace to shake the hand of someone we disagree with. We do not hinge a woman's value on the shape of her body. We have the compassion, the humanity, and the resources to protect those who cannot defend themselves.
And when a certain kind of person calls us 'nasty,' we do not merely take it as a compliment, we wear it like a badge of honor, like a coat of arms, like a banner to let the world know what we are, and what we are not.