Article revised November 17, 2016.

So what do we do now?

I'm certainly not going to listen to the media take the election apart and make excuses for not predicting this result. They are the ones that started this downward spiral as they detailed god knows how much free coverage of this man's every move. The more heinous, the more they spoke of it. My mother-in-law used to say, "Every knock is a boost." And boost him they did.

Now we are supposed to wonder why people, whose greatest days and nights are in front of a TV, being watchers instead of participants in their own lives, voted for him?

I get it that the governments on state and local and national levels have not been doing what they need to be doing to help areas that are losing their livelihoods. But some of these lost people are also not interested in making the changes they have to make. They need to try and do something about their lives. They want someone else to do it for them – a hero, a savior who will promise them the world they want, and blame others for taking it away from them. Those guys have had other names: Hitler, Mussolini, Hirohito, Stalin, Sadam Hussein, and perhaps Putin.

The bulk of the people that he-who-is-not-my-president has threatened to eject from this country did something when their lives went sour – they came here and took the jobs all these white voters wouldn't think of doing. Well, good news, folks, those jobs are going to be all yours.

And do you know what else is not being discussed? Most of his voters have incomes of over $100K, $250K and more, while the majority of voters with incomes under $100k and even under $50K and $30K voted for Hillary.

I think those may make up the real disenfranchised segment of America and my educated guess is that the majority of them are women.

If I sound annoyed, it is because we have one heck of a mandate here. In America, we are still better off than most of the rest of the world, and if Americans traveled more they would understand what incredible luck we have drawn to be born here. With our natural resources and farmlands alone, we should be doing more than plundering the land and polluting the air. And the 1% and several levels down should also be willing to share the bounty they have reaped instead of stockpiling more and more.

And for heaven's sake, pay your taxes!!

To those to whom much has been given, more is expected. Listen up Evangelicals, I just paraphrased the Bible.
Instead, we have become greedy and spoiled and want what the Kardashians and the T****s have. Gold faucets and private planes. The people who sit in front of their TV's want that "greatness" to fall on them, and the casting of this vote to them was like buying a lottery ticket. Well, folks, you are going to lose big time. This ticket isn't just not paying out, it is going to take all you already have.

Wealthy citizens are already speaking with their accountants about how much more play money they will have when their taxes get reduced. Trickle down will have serious payback here for the disenfranchised TV set, the poor, the elderly and the vulnerable. For starters, if "he" is successful in getting rid of the Alternative Minimum Tax, how will Social Security be funded? Surprise, surprise. And then there is Medicare. Hold on tight – most Republicans still refer to that one as an "entitlement." They will certainly collaborate on wittling away services and raising premiums.

Speaking of the Republican party, what have you let happen to you?

We are supposed to have two main parties who work together, and even if they disagree, usually on fiscal issues, both parties embody clear and basic American values, and require at least their leadership to be of sound mind and body. I have been a Democrat all my life and I have many good and valued friends and colleagues who are Republicans and they have helped me to understand their perspectives on many issues. I have never doubted their values and love of this country. And many of them could not vote for him. He is not even a Republican!!!!

If you are a Republican, please get your party on track. This country was founded on the separation of church and state.

Do you not seriously recall why all those folks crowded onto the Mayflower and all those other uncomfortable ships? This was one of the main reasons they came here. What is your Christian right doing to you? And if you really are the party of Lincoln, then why are you allowing all this racism to slip into your party and take it over? If you really are the party of Reagan, why are you building a wall? If you really are against big government, then why are you involved in people's sex lives, and with women's bodies? And how about climate change? Seriously, I wasn't aware that it was only the Democrats who were well educated. And did common sense go out the window too? Assault weapons? No one said you couldn't keep your other phalluses – but assault weapons – that is just plain stupid. What are you thinking?

You are thinking that it is okay to give up your values and what you know to be true and right in order to win and control. That is why you didn't give him the boot when he first came into your world. You have been so intent on needling Obama and not collaborating on what he was trying to accomplish, that you didn't have the time to cultivate and grow a true leader. You are responsible for this disgracing of America. The Democrats have their list of sins too, but shame on you, my dear Republicans. I would very much like to call you my fellow Americans again.

But you know what is really making me angry?

It is how this one man has already impacted so many people's lives with so much pain and dejection and there is obviously so much more to come.

There are countless stories of the circumstances of individual lives that have become unbearable. Late last night, I saw a woman who is a professor at a city college whose students are a good representation of the UN. She had been carrying the weight of their tears and fears and needed the safe place of my office to unload. She spoke of many private griefs – parents who will surely be deported, babies who will lose fathers, students who will have no homes and no support.

But it was her finding two nineteen-year-old Muslim women, with their little veils on their small heads, huddled together crying because they were afraid to walk home for fear of being attacked, that broke her heart.

Another unforgettable moment of this week for me was the pain of a woman I have known for a long time. She is a holocaust survivor and was one of the "hidden children" while her family and her home and all their possessions were destroyed. November 9th was the 78th anniversary of Kristallnacht and through her tears she said " I never thought I would live to see another Hitler being elected."

Reports of hate crimes flood our press and social media since the Election.

So you will pardon me if I am not my usual positive, tolerant, and encouraging psychologist self. But a colleague of mine who is working at another City college and dealing with students and employees who are fearful for their differences in faith, race, sexuality, nationality, appearance and abilities, set me straight.

I have been thinking about how I could not just offer platitudes to people about how we will get through this together, and that they still have much to be grateful for etc.

I have been listening and holding their pain and yet feeling anxious for them and for myself, truth be told. My colleague told her department and the students that she believed "that people who feel they are a victim of circumstances are the ones who elected him, and our job was to not be a victim of this election. I encourage you to find the one right you think Trump will try to overturn and find a way to be a part of the movement to preserve that right."

That my friends is called active citizenship and it is something many of us have forgotten about. All those baby boomers who cast the majority of votes for him don't remember what it was like when we were young and hungry enough for what we believed in that we fought for it.

And so what do we do now? And I am not just addressing Democrats, but also those Republicans, who know that this is wrong and that this is not your America either.

Together let us embrace the mantle of becoming politically conscious and not let people in the White House or in the House or the Senate or the Court or any other governmental or political arena tell us what our country is going to look like and what we value. We already have the blueprint for that. Hasn't everyone seen or at least heard Hamilton?!!!! We don't have to reinvent the wheel here. "Liberty and justice for all", etc. etc.

Our job now means that we pick the one right, the one behavior, the one value we feel most passionate about and we get out there and fight for it. It could be a woman's right to choose, or the inclusion of immigrants, or even a code of civility. Whatever you believe in that now feels threatened.

I have a wonderful friend named Beverly Neufeld (www.powher.org) who has been a leader in the fight for equal pay for women for the last umpteen years. She follows in the tradition of strong women activists like Susan B. Anthony, Rosa Parks, Septima Clark, Gloria Steinem, Elinor Guggenheimer. I am understanding that it is no longer enough to leave the fights to people like them and their dedicated posses. We all must pick a battle and stick with it, long after these initial demonstrations end, giving whatever time and resources we can cobble together.

If enough of us do that, we will have a plethora of movements, and we will remind those who have been elected, both through dubious or honest means, of this party or that party, that America belongs to the people who fight for it. America demands something of each of us. It cannot be outsourced. We have been taking our citizenship for granted and left it to others to craft and control, and now we have to get busy, or the best human experiment that has ever happened on the face of this earth will be a memory.

Did you ever see the original Planet of the Apes with Charleston Heston? There is a scene when he sees the broken head of the Statue of Liberty poking out of the sand and he realizes that the planet he is on was once planet earth. In agony, he screams "You had to spoil it, didn't you?" I don't want that to be our destiny.

Here are two things you can do in the next few minutes:

1). New York magazine compiled a list of organizations that needhelp to fight the impact of his policies. There are other lists available on the internet. Review them and find your passion. Start with a donation but don't stop there.
http://nymag.com/thecut/2016/11/how-to-donate-to-p...

2). Before the election, while we were waiting, I released a very short video called New York DiverCity in an effort to instill some hope by reminding people of who we are in New York and what we believe in. Click on:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-7nuHwz-Bq4&featur...
Please watch it to see why the overwhelming majority of New York City did not vote for him and why we have a job to do.
P.S. – The end is the best part!!
HINT - "Hold it high!!!"

I wish you courage and hope and drink the strongest cup of tea you can make.

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November 29, 2016