On election day in 2016, I was inside the crowded Javits center. The Javits center was chosen for their see-through exterior and their transparent roof that made it seem like the ceiling was made of glass. Elderly women in sweaters were sipping their cocktails, while extremely large TV screens were projecting every news channel as to see the election results. But, most of these women already knew that we would be breaking the glass ceiling.
At around 10:45pm, panic started to set in when Florida was called for Trump. At this point, these women were on the verge of tears clutching on their last illusions of America of their imagination, far divorced from reality. At around 1:15 AM, instead of breaking the class ceiling, they shattered their illusions of the country they thought they lived in.
But, this story didn’t start in 2015, when Donald Trump rode down the gaudy elevator and drew gasps when he breached etiquette held among the journalist class by calling Mexicans rapists. The story began much earlier, nearly 150 years ago.
While General Lee did surrender to Ulysses Grant, the north thought they had won the war. But, somehow the south managed to win the battle post-civil war. The demons from the reconstruction era still hover over us and haunt us today. But to exorcise them, we need to identify and name them. In my newsletter, I wish to take you on a journey where we exorcise the demons of the past and see a clearer better path to the future. But this journey isn’t pretty. We will be digging many graves and excavating many bodies. We will see the worst of humanity, but we will be better for it.
While old icons may be shattered, new heroes will emerge and we may even find angels in the dust. We will walk through the journey where we experience a bit of hope, sorrow, anger and fear.