These past few weeks have been emotionally draining for many Americans as we’ve witnessed the earliest actions from our new President. In the span of 11 days, President Trump has signed an executive order banning citizens of 7 predominantly Muslim countries from entering the U.S., supported the completion of the Dakota Access Pipeline and Keystone XL Pipeline, taken the initial steps towards dismantling the Affordable Care Act, issued a public communications freeze on government agencies like the EPA and the NPS, reinstated the global gag rule which blocks federal funding to international health organizations that provide abortions services and counseling, began discussing the construction of the wall on the U.S.-Mexican border and suggested that Americans pay a 20% tax on imported goods from our southern neighbor, had his Chief Strategist and Senior Counselor call the press the ‘opposition party,’ snuck said strategist onto the National Security Council despite his lack of military experience, fired practically everyone at the State Department who had actual experience at their jobs, fired the Attorney General who defied his executive order on the basis that she found it unconstitutional, and got super petty about the crowd size at his inauguration vs. the turnout at the Women’s March on Washington. Nerves are shot, rage is rising, and hope seems lost.
Here is what I’ve been doing to cope:
- I ate 6 clementines today.
- Raining dolla bills on the ACLU like I’m Fat Joe and Lil Wayne.
- Watching the movie Dick because I’m in the mood to see teenage girls take down a president.
- Reading online news sources like the Washington Post, New York Times, The Guardian, BBC, Reuters, and NPR with the same fervor I had for Outlander.
- Forced hugs upon any pet that enters the 10-feet perimeter.
- Take comfort in the fact that at least my brief foray into stand up comedy went better than Kellyanne Conway’s.
- Doing lots of yoga and holding savasana. And by yoga, I mean a practice of moving meditation. And by savasana, I mean passing out on the couch in a wine stupor.
- Openly weeping over videos of airport protests and seeing released detainees embrace their families while the crowd cheers and chants “USA! USA!” and thinking that maybe we’ll all be OK after all…. Right? ……right? ……right?
- Sooooo many Harry Potter references.
- Not coping. Staying mad, staying engaged, staying informed, staying politically active.
Drinkers with Writing Problems 