Seriously though, where I live and work it may as well be. I have never seen these highly intelligent, highly educated, and wealthy people so disheartened, angry, and hateful. Yes hateful. I will revisit that later. I of course live in one of the most democratic and liberal states in the country and work in one of the most liberal and democratic cities. From what I can see there are four primary groups absolutely outraged by the results of the election: my wealthy clients, celebrities, professional athletes and last but not least, every teenager in my daughter’s high school. Now of course this is a complete generalization. Not every celebrity, not every athlete and not every teenager feels the same way. I certainly respect many (most really) of my clients and their opinions. I am sorry to see many of them hurting right now.  I gotta be honest with you though, if it’s the popular opinion of the celebrities and professional athletes in this country, I’m running the other way and dismissing their opinion out of hand.

What do I have in common with these four groups? Very little actually. None of these groups live in my particular shoes, or the shoes of my friends and family. Who am I? I’m a working stiff. Blue collar. I don’t mind. Working hard to provide for yourself and your family is the bedrock of this great country. Not to say these folks don’t work hard. They often work exceptionally hard. They just work and live in their own particular bubbles. Very different bubbles. They worry about very different things. I worry about paying my bills, saving enough for retirement, having enough money to put the kids through college. I count every penny and worry, rightly so, about it being enough. They worry about social justice, gender equality, political correctness and the environment to name a few. These are important things (well, except for political correctness), just not things I have the time and energy to worry about. Or the money to pay for.  This of course is again a major generalization.  It does however represent in a general sense the very different priorities of the populace.  As far as the teenagers go, they can suck it up and deal. Until they get out on their own and actually work and live ON THEIR OWN, their opinion means very little to me. Sorry kiddos.

So the sky is falling, the stock market is going to crash (oh wait, that didn’t happen) and the wall is going up (okay, this might happen)! One of the things I have most interesting this week is the rhetoric about hate. Hate will hit an all time high with Trump as president!  Race relations will be worse than ever! What?!? I am forty two years old. Certainly not old enough to have lived through or relate to the challenges black folks have had to overcome. And no doubt there are still more challenges to overcome. But I have never felt more disheartened about race relations in this country then I have in the last few years. Why you may ask? Because the people in power and the liberal media have been fanning the flames of hate and discord for a long time now. I don’t have any doubt that the liberal media machine will continue to do its work but I have hope now that the people in power will step in and set the record straight. I didn’t vote for Trump and I certainly didn’t vote for Hillary. I have felt from the very beginning of this process that it had failed me by offering up two people of questionable character and integrity as candidates to manage this great country. The American people have spoken though and I don’t disagree. The powers in place currently are slowly shredding the fabric that has made this country great. We will just have to wait to see what happens. I have my hopes, and yes fears, when it comes to Donald Trump, but the country has spoken and time will tell.

JD