Nightfall...

And, night has fallen.

The light of reason and hope ebbs and so begins a long, dark night of hatred, fear and hopelessness.  A night of walls, of bigotry and fear and "extreme vetting."  Of hating the outsider in trying to make ourselves feel greater.

A step has been taken backward.  Back toward reversing a woman's right to control her life.  Back toward reversing marriage equality and relegating an entire group of people to an assigned caste of perpetual inferiority and alienation.

Families may be torn asunder, chasms may widen between nations and religions.  But, will our nation endure?  Will we still recognize it...and, each other...when the long dark night is over?

And, when will it be over?  Can darkness endure forever?  Hatred does.  War does.  Bigotry does.  How much more easily those things come to the human heart than love.  How much more easily to the human mind than reason.

So easy to revel in our own hatred.  Love of war.  Love of torture.  Hatred of the outsider.  Are these our creeds now?  Will any of our soul or national character survive in the cold, deepening shadow of a wall that blocks out the sunlight of hope?

All talk now is of healing and reconciliation.  Is that even possible in a regime that has fed and grown on division, fear and hate?  That depends on these things to continue to grow and prosper?  That would fill its ranks with those that would widen the gulf between authority and community?  That would move the law backwards while half the country longs to move forward?  Can we even try or want to support our elected leader if his goals include only more division, more fear, more inequality and more hatred?  When the leader's goals conflict with those of half the governed, then where does healing begin?

The protest marches have already begun.  Will they dissipate, or spark violent counter-protests, a taste of which we've already seen throughout the exhausting election behind us? 

This election was spawned by a complete lack of hope.  By a blind desire for change at any cost.  Like the foolish frogs of Greek myth who demanded a king.  Zeus gave them a log for a king, because it did no harm, and they were outraged in their boredom.  "Give us a king who does something," they cried, and Zeus gave them a crane for a king.  As the crane devoured them, they begged to have the log back.  But, it was too late.