While there is elation, there is also consternation and we need to recognize and address it all, together
I acknowledge the many voices, perspectives and experiences amongst Moodfuel readers, including widely varying responses to the election results. In our swing state of Colorado, Donald Trump's supporters were able to look past his moral choices and multiple criminal convictions to his promises about decreased living costs, safety from Others and a return to the Good Ol' Days of, well, no one I talked to verbalized exactly when those were. These voters are feeling elation, and from some areas, I've observed vindictive triumph.
While Kamala Harris won Colorado's 10 electoral votes and the national popular vote, those facts don't matter now. What does matter and will continue to matter four years from now are some deeply rooted aspirations, ones that Moodfuel supports. Coloradans who have experienced marginalization due to the color of their skin, their socioeconomic status, sexual orientation, gender identity, ethnicity, physical ability or mental acuity hoped not just for our country's first woman president of color, but for much more: increased freedoms to be themselves at work, school and in all public spaces; improved access to culturally competent physical and mental health care; living with dignity in decent, safe housing; voting without racial and economic restrictions; and moving through life abundantly, without food insecurity, gun violence or the inhumane treatment of relatives.
These residents are feeling grief, anger, overwhelm and terrible fear. I, myself, fell through those emotions into suicidality on Nov. 6th, telling my husband to hide the guns. I couldn't bear the trauma of living in a country willing to other so many so unrepentantly, especially since my father emigrated here after surviving the Nazi camps and my maternal grandmother survived an Indian Boarding School in Texas. I also thought about friends and neighbors who will soon face extreme oppression when their lives are already very difficult. I felt powerless, hopeless, boxed in.
I wasn't alone.
- During the early hours of Dec. 6, a national crisis line received a 700% surge in contacts as 2SLGBTQ+ youth poured their anxiety into calls, chats and texts while Queer and Gender Expansive adults lit up social media with posts expressing worry and deep despair.
- At the height of the campaign, the top candidates courted Indigenous Peoples, who have become an influential voting bloc 100 years after getting the right to vote, only to be mischaracterized and likely to experience the misappropriation of our resources and sacred spaces (again) in the new year, contributing to our astoundingly high suicide rate of 91% compared to other populations nationally.
- Currently, people with eating and substance misuse challenges, trauma histories, neurodivergence and other difficulties are packing in-person and online post-election support groups to voice their concerns in safe spaces.
- Throughout the election to today, Black, Latine, Asian and Muslim Americans have experienced a spectrum of racial hatred and violence from threatening mass texts nationally to up-close, very personal violence in Colorado.
I also remember the last Trump presidency during which more marginalized people, like the indefinitely incarcerated for minor crimes and the psychiatrically compelled, suffered prolonged negative impacts.
So, let's focus.
If you don't understand this consternation and begin your question about why people are afraid with the line, "I'm genuinely curious ...," as if the severe initiatives Trump stated he would enact immediately upon taking office were just fall leaves blowing around Mount Blue Sky, then you have some self-educating and awareness-building to do. Read more nonpartisan, informative content by Moodfuel and other nonprofit news organizations.
If you negate the fear as merely sour grapes about the election results, then your math is way off. As Callie Crossley said in her public radio commentary, "We carry the history of our ancestors who survived the brutality of discrimination ... and fought for the legislative and societal protections many Americans — including those outside our communities — embrace." The genuine reaction of fear and dismay is, at least, about not feeling safe in one's own mind and community. At most, it is about the coming potential loss of hard-won freedoms that protect and respect.
If you feel fearful and overwhelmed, the Moodfuel team and I see you. Struggling in Colorado's rocky terrain of mental health is difficult enough. Add in the fraught political climate, the emboldened, retributive animosity and the lack of compassion for, or even awareness of, neighbors who likely will suffer catastrophically. It's a formula for extreme, protracted mental adversity, no doubt.
Yet, the idea that enabled me to uncurl from the corner, the one I've affixed to my bathroom mirror so I can see it each morning and night is: I am not alone. We will face this challenging period together. I hope this idea comforts you, too, because Moodfuel stands with you – not in front nor behind, but side-by-side.
So, take this time before Jan. 20 to breathe, rest and replenish. You are not alone. Together, we will be strong.
