Tag: november

tomorrow is now.

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*views expressed in this post are solely my own*

In the final year of her life, Eleanor Roosevelt declared, “It is today that we must create the world of the future. Tomorrow is now.”

Yesterday, at 10.25 am, I wept in a gas station parking lot in the Missouri Ozarks. Tears of joy and release and hope for what felt like the first time in four years.

74 million Americans voted for Joe Biden and Kamala Harris. More than any Presidential election in history. Beyond politics, beyond legislature this was a referendum on the America we want to be. Not only the America we see within our borders but also the America we project to the world.

So together, the world watched. From India to Ireland. From Edinburgh to Lawrence. The world held its breath. And finally, with a collective sigh of release, the world wept with joy.

Tomorrow is now.

Four years ago, I shed a very different type of tears. I remember it vividly from my flat in Edinburgh, Scotland. At just nineteen, the world seemed open, expansive, broad… until it wasn’t. I screamed. I sobbed. I felt lost, alone, abandoned, and set adrift from my country an ocean away.

I wept into my friends’ arms. I still remember how tightly I hugged Ellie as I cried or held Tuva’s hand as I watched Hillary Rodham Clinton tell the world with impeccable composure and grace to, “Never stop believing that fighting for what’s right is worth it.”

Four years ago, I had to believe Hillary’s ideas could not die with the 2016 election. If they did, then what did that mean for me? A young, ambitious, American woman seeking the best future for herself. What did that mean for my kid sister? Too young to vote to protect her future. What did that mean for our lands and waters and forests and canyons? What did that mean for the American experiment and the dignity and integrity of those hallowed words sent to page: “We the people.”

I could not allow myself to believe that it was over. If I did, what was the use in still fighting for what was right? What was the point?

I had to stay loud. I had to continue to speak, even if my voice shook. Even if I was terrified. I had to believe in something better. I had to still fight to ensure that “We the people” meant all the people.

The dignity of the individual is too great a cost to lose.

So, I marched. I wrote my representatives, I phonebanked, I donated, I signed petitions. I got into what John Lewis would call “good trouble.” Throughout it all, I never forgot the fear and abandonment of November 2016. Those feelings of helplessness terrified me and I vowed to never see more young Americans go through it.

For four years, I did what I could, wherever I was in the world, to ensure my international friends could see that a light of hope still burned in America. I became the America they needed to see. The tolerant America. The loving America. The America I knew and still believed in.

But, it’s always darkest before the dawn, isn’t it? Before the charge of the light brigade, before the bursting of the dam, before Gandalf arrives on the morning of the third day with the Rohirrim to turn the tide at the Battle of Helm’s Deep. Anyway…

Tomorrow is now.

Four years ago, my kid sister couldn’t vote. Yesterday, I got to see the smile on her face as she knew that she contributed to protecting our American democracy.

Tomorrow is now.

Four years ago, Kamala Harris was elected as a Senator from California. She was the first female Black senator since 1999. Yesterday, she accepted her role as Vice President-elect. The first woman. The first Black woman. The first South-Asian woman. The first child of an immigrant in a country built by immigrants.

Tomorrow is now.

Dressed in Suffragette white, the Vice President-elect stood on the shoulders of the women who had come before her. On the 100-year anniversary of the 19th Amendment, women across the country saw yet another glass ceiling shatter into thousands of shimmering, glimmering pieces.

Then, after her, Joe Biden spoke in full, articulate sentences about the need to heal. To protect one another. To value our differences because they make us strong. To respect human dignity. Like a calming wave, I watched as the camera panned over the crowd. Settling on children, adults, and the elderly. Each spark of life, each voice, that stood up to protect our American democracy.

In 2016, I wrote here on the blog:

We have to remember Hillary’s ideas didn’t die with this election.

We have to get up and keep fighting for change. We might have been defeated here but we only fail if we give up. Defeat is what happens when you stop trying. Failure is just a growing pain of progress.

I am beyond saddened by the result, but I know that we need to keep moving forward. We can allow this to knock us down, but we cannot allow this outcome to keep us from getting back up. We cannot dwell in our sadness and regret. We have to channel those emotions into creating the America I know we can be. We have to keep fighting for tolerance and equality.

If I learned anything from my pretentious university degree it was this: History is alive. History sways and adapts and changes, but like a river it is always moving. It builds on itself, reacting to events days, months, sometimes even years before. But, everything is connected. We are here today because of the responsibility and grace and drive for change of those before us. And lest we forget, our own actions will reverb through the generations long after we are gone.

So, with integrity, imagination, courage, and a high heart…

Tomorrow is now.

We are the government. The basic power still lies in the hands of the citizens. But we must use it. That means that in every small unit of government, each individual citizen must feel his responsibility to do the best with his citizenship that he possibly can achieve.

Eleanor Roosevelt (1962)

round 1 project: fireline and forest management

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Hey friends! It’s me your community service minded friend here again to let you know the haps and situs I am currently experiencing.

It’s been a while and there’s a lot of ground to cover (hahaha that’s a joke you’ll get a bit).

As you know, I’m currently working as a Team Leader for AmeriCorps NCCC. My team of ten departed from the AmeriCorps Campus a little over a week ago in our black Goverment 15-person van in convoy with our Government issued cargo truck. We drove across Colorado, through Kansas (with an overnight stop in Junction City), before cutting down south to the Ozarks for our Round 1 project. Round 1 covers 6 weeks and we’ve just finished our first full week.

So. What have I been up to? My team is working with the Missouri State Parks department to construct 8.2 miles of protective fireline across two new state parks in the southern Ozarks we are also going to focus on removing invasive cedar trees to clear the land for native plant species. We are going to be receiving Fire Management Level 1 training through the Missouri Conservation Department! Both parks are newly acquired and are vast expanses of predominantly untouched Ozark forest and glades.

Prescribed burns have been used in the area to help protect the natural environment and also prevent wildfires. By scheduling controlled burns, park management can ensure that there isn’t a build of of burnable fuels (leaves, branches, fallen trees, etc) on the forest floors. It also helps to remove invasive species and germinate native plant seeds.

After equipment training and lectures about the science behind prescribed fires, my team set off into the forest. Using backpack leaf blowers, weed eaters, hand saws, and chainsaws we’ve been clearing away previously burnt areas as well as venturing into untouched woodland to connect new lines. This week we constructed roughly 2.2 miles of fireline within the first of the three burn areas.

Firelines are constructed around burn areas to contain flames and also serve as channels for fireteams. To construct one you need to clear a six to eight foot path through the forest, removing all burnable debris until the dry, mineral soil is exposed. Without fuel to burn, the fire will stop at the line. However, this also means that you need to be aware of hanging branches or hazard trees that could collapse or throw embers. That’s were knocking down dead trees or the use of a chain saw comes in.

I spent most of the week with a backpack blower wandering through the forest laying the foundational line or removing debris to widen the line. I also kicked down plenty of dead trees and threw them down a ravine. You know, #justgirliethings.

    We’ve been living close to the parks themselves near beautiful areas of untouched nature. Beautiful night skies and quiet, dark forests. It’s been a well received welcome back to the field for me. I’m always happiest outside and surrounded by dirt it seems. Service is limited however, hence the lack of uploaded photos. Soz, babes.

    But, it’s all for the greater good.

    By helping now to repair and manage these two new parks, my AmeriCorps team will ensure people in the future will be able to enjoy the natural beauty of the Ozarks. In the midst of a global pandemic, it’s about what we can do to help and right now America’s natural environment needs my hands to build it back better.

    okay, one last time. promise.

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    If you’re fed up with me using my blog to promote the 2018 Mid-term elections, rest assured… this is the last time.

    Today is Election Day and if you haven’t voted yet – shame on you.  Honestly, that’s not meant as a joke either civic negligence isn’t cute.  Your vote matters, not just for yourself but for everyone around you.  I’m going to sleep early tonight with an alarm set for even earlier tomorrow morning to watch the results come in on boring as C-SPAN unless I can find a way to watch something else.  Yay, time zones.

    But. Just one last thing I’d thought I’d say before this election.  America, I believe in you.  I believe you because you’ve seen this before and you’ve seen worse.  And, while it might knock you down a few times you’ll get back up.

    America, I know you will.

    While I was thinking about how to write this post I stumbled across this:

    Screen Shot 2018-11-06 at 6.24.51 PM

    Screen Shot 2018-11-06 at 6.30.12 PM

    This is the Columbus and its register. It was built in 1924 by Schichau Shipyard in Danzig, Germany.  It weighed 32,581 gross tons.  Measured 775 (bp) feet long and 83 feet wide.  Featured steam turbine engines with twin screw. Service speed was 23 knots. It held 1,725 passengers (479 first class, 644 second class, 602 third class) and on January 1, 1926 it arrived to Ellis Island.

    Herman Meiwes, my great-grandfather, was the 21st passenger on the Columbus.  He was 24 years old.  From New York, he traveled to Chicago were he met my great-grandmother, Elizabeth Thumann.

    In 1929, Elizabeth had traveled from her home in Germany to the United States of America.  She left behind her family, her friends, and the memories of her fiancée who had been killed during WWI.  Everything she owned was placed in a single wooden trunk.  In her bag was a letter from a man in Nebraska who was seeking a German wife. Like Herman, Elizabeth was also seeking a new life for herself – one away from the dangers rising in her home country.

    As it turns out, the man in Nebraska had already found a wife by the time Elizabeth arrived in New York.  She moved to Chicago and worked as a nurse and housemaid.  An honest job for a clever, independent woman with limited English.  That was where Elizabeth met Herman.  The two married and moved to Kansas where they had two daughters – Annie and Sue.

    grandma_family

    My Great-Grandparents, Great-Aunt, and Grandmother.  1946.

    In 1952, Sue married Clete.  In 1958, my grandparents had their first son, Mark, in England while they were stationed there with the US Air Force .  Back in Kansas, in 1961, their second son was born, Scott – my dad.

    clete:sue

    My Grandparents on their wedding day.  1952.

    family

    My mom, me, my dad, my sister, and my grandmother. 2014. (Side note: if you want to see me in the future look no further than this picture).

    My great-grandparents arrived in the United States with nothing to their names but hope of a better future than the one unfolding in Germany… and through the kindness of the Americans they met along the way and their own hard work – I am here able to write this now.

    And, that’s the truth.

    I think about my family a lot this time of year this close to Thanksgiving and Christmas.  As their great-granddaughter, I hope to uphold the faith they had.  The faith that America would be the place to welcome them with open arms and do its best to give them the future they deserve.  The place where through hard work, they could make something.  The hope that America will continue to welcome each and every one of us with open arms and do its best to give us all the futures we deserve.  The hope that if we continue to stretch just that bit further with love and support for those around us – we can all make America the place Herman Meiwes first saw from the deck of the Columbus.

    So, that’s my last election post.

    I’ll see you all on the other side.

     

    Happy Thanksgiving

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    Today’s my first Thanksgiving completely away from my family.  Or to clarify: it’s year 3, so this isn’t *technically* my first Thanksgiving away… but it is without at least one member of my family.  My mom came over in first year and my dad and sister came over last year.

    This year, they’re all back in Kansas and my sister has just returned home for the first time from University.  And me?  I’m writing this from a coffee shop.  But, just because I’m alone this Thanksgiving doesn’t mean that I’m lonely.

    I actually find it pretty hard to be lonely in Edinburgh… and that’s not because there are probably more skeletal remains buried beneath the city than living inhabitants.  No, I find it hard to be lonely in Edinburgh because of the history and stories surrounding everything.  That, and of course, my friends… who are truly wonderful people and I probably don’t tell them that enough.

    This weekend we went to the Bothy for the last EUMC meet of the year.  We cooked up a big meal aka about 40L of vegetable soup.  We started early on Saturday morning and served up around 8pm.  It was a few days early, but being at the Bothy, cooking, and drinking mulled wine in front of the fire felt a little bit like own little Thanksgiving.  I wasn’t related to anyone there, but it felt like a little family nonetheless.  (And, yeah, sure, maybe I’m a little sentimental… but being a long way from your family around this time of year makes anyone sentimental.)

    View this post on Instagram

    Happy Thanksgiving.

    A post shared by ✨kenn dold✨ (@baeowulf_) on

    I was grateful for this weekend.  I had been very stressed and I was grateful for that beautiful place in the mountains.  How the sun hit the snowy peaks and how the clear the river was.  I was grateful for the stars, and how you could see Orion overhead – the first constellation my dad ever taught me.  But, most importantly, I was grateful for the stories from the people milling about and the laughter they brought with them – for the singing and the dancing and the fireworks and even the bagpipes.

    If living abroad has taught me anything, it’s that the world may seem pretty big… but it’s also pretty small as well.  The places and the people may be different but the feeling of the holidays remain the same.

    Thanksgiving has been and will be a day for stopping and looking at the wonderful life around you.  It’s for realising that things aren’t as bad as they seem.  It’s about giving thanks for the places you’ve been and will go and the people you’ve met and will meet along the way.

    lol what is a blog ???

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    ope.

    Sorry, Mom, for the absence.

    Things have been a little crazy.  I’ve turned in four essays so far.  Deadlines were very close together with one on 1 Nov, 2 on Nov, and 1 on 7 Nov… hence the radio silence.

    I’ve still got to design a poster and start on my final three big essays for the semester.  SCREAMS.

    But, if any consolation… I don’t have any exams this semester so that’s nice.  Just death essays.

    This week has been pretty great so far…

    On Monday, I have a meeting at the National Museum to help discuss what sort of things young people would be interested in.  The NMS just got a huge grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund.  Since I volunteer at the museum with the youth engagement team, we all got called in for a consultation with museum staff and Young Scot staff.  We talked about ‘what is heritage’ and what we should expect from future museum programs.  They also gave me food and unlimited coffee so I was pretty happy.

    Tuesday. I woke up late and barely made it to class on time and then was locked into academia from 9-1 and because I was running late didn’t have time for food and nearly starved to death and then one of my pins fell off my jacket and I still haven’t found it and I’m still crying about it.

    TODAY! I also got up late and had to run out the door to be at the Royal Botanical Garden for 10.30 to get my pass photo taken because surprise! cha girl is also volunteering there now! I’ll be working at the Garden Cottage which hosts a lot of educational events.  They brought me into help plan events for teens and students!  I attended the interdepartmental meeting today which was a bit overwhelming for my first day but they gave me free food so it was okay. (It was pumpkin soup made from stuff grown in the garden FYI.)  I’ve got another meeting there next week Wednesday to talk more with the education department.  I’m v excited.

    But, yeah.  I came home after the meeting and drank a lot of coffee.  I talked shit with my dad over the phone for liiikkkee an hour or so until my phone died.  Then I actually had to get to work and so I read the entire publication about the mass graves at Towton (a battle during the war of the roses (1461) which pretty much paved the way for bby edward iv to become king of england… which im still really conflicted about because eddie 4 was fighting against henry ‘son of bae’ vi and while i’m like eddie iv is the better candidate my loyalty to henry v really causes a lot of internal strife and turmoil and it all comes down to the fact that if bae hadn’t died of dysentery in 1422 we wouldnt have this problem.)  for my Conflict Archaeology class.

    And, now I have to somehow try to condense all that information to a poster and write three essays by December 5. Which is, as much as I cry about it, actually quite doable and I just have to stop whining about it and ‘getter done.’

    yIkEs.

     

     

     

    Seven Essays Later

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    It’s week 11.  Don’t forget to vote so I can sled dogs.

    This semester has been picked up by Millenium Falcon and thrown into a hyper-jump.  Or at least that’s how it feels.

    But! Seven essays later, here I am.  I just submitted my last Archaeology Report on the Traprain Law Treasure (a giant collection of Roman hacksilver discovered on Traprain Law… east of Edinburgh … in 1919) and what it tells us about Roman Scotland in the 5c.  This is probably my favourite essay I’ve written this year because it’s at the beginning of the time period I really love – the (not really/the name is product of Victorian antiquarians simplifying history) Dark Ages.

    Story time:  When the Roman army left Britain c. 410 CE Rome itself didn’t leave.  Roman silver (like the Traprain Treasure) was used to pay off local elites and establish proxy governments to govern in the name of Rome.  These proxies didn’t work because … seriously who, after being handed over a ton of silver, would go ‘Ah yes.’ *rubs hands together manically* ‘I am know the sole powerful elite in the area.  I have all this money to buy shit and do stuff.  The Roman army is no longer here to harass me… but I’m still going to govern for them.’ lol no one.

    The local elites, took advantage of the power vacuum created by the retreat of Roman and established the early petty kingdoms of the EMP (early medieval period).  This is most clearly see in England (where there was a larger Roman influence than in Scotland) with the establishment of the Northumbrian Heptarchy and later Saxon kingdoms.  HOWEVER, in Scotland we do see the rise of the Kingdoms of the Old North: The Gododdin, Strathclyde, and Rheged.

    The Traprain Treasure is a huge give away to the weakening of Rome on the fringes of the Empire, especially given Traprain’s location on the fluctuating frontier.  Fun Fact: It’s located between the Antonine and Hadrian’s Wall, in a sort of liminal semi-DMZ, so depending on what part of the 1-3c you’re talking it could either be considered Roman or Caledonian.

    Anyway, as you can see, I get really excited about the Dark Ages.  To be honest, it’s probably because in order to understand the period you have to look at the archaeology and the historical records.  In order to find the archaeology you need to look at the records.  Albeit, the records were often written 200-300 after the events… so you need to look back at the archaeology to see what parts of the records you can trust.  It’s like a puzzle.

    The Dark Ages are also really cool to study in Britain because the island is a model of shifting political and cultural activity.  The new kingdoms are drawn up on the borders of the old Roman governances and the people continue the uses of a lot of Roman goods and centres.  It’s almost like a dystopian history, especially during the 5-6c where the memory of Rome was still very fresh in people’s memory.

    There were some recent excavations at Crammond (south of Edinburgh) where they discovered multiple 6/7c burials in an old Roman bath complex.  Clearly the baths were not in use anymore… but the people still held them in high regard, enough to bury their elites there.  Contemporary writers such as St. Patrick and Gildas also look back at Rome really fondly… it’s fun to see how the views of Rome shift.

    So that was my last assignment before exams!

    I’m a little tired today because of uni work but also staying up a lot later than I intended playing Tomb Raider.  My Dad, while pretty cool, is also incredibly evil.  He gave me my Christmas present early JUST so that he could be here to see the moral dilemma.  Spoiler alert: It’s an Xbox with the new Tomb Raider. As he said, ‘It’s a gift from me to you… but also a gift from you to yourself.  May you learn discipline and time management.’  …. great.     

    So apologies for lack of posting, frankly I’ve been terribly busy.  Things got a little hectic this week with general exam freaking out and essay finishing.  I have a bad habit of underestimating what I actually know.  While I do know a lot, I feel, at times, I know very little… so I’ve stress read a few books over the past couple of days and watched plenty of supplemental documentaries.

    I went for a run today through the Meadows to Holyrood Park and up the Crags just before sunset.  It was really pretty and gave me sometime just to chill out.  Between the Election and four essays due this month… things have been really crazy.  I haven’t had time just to decompress.  Which really isn’t good for people who struggle with anxiety like myself. If I’m not given time to decompress I find myself getting overwhelmed really quickly.  So, I sat for a while at the top of the Crags, listened to some music, and just looked out to the city… and guys I know I want to be a Medievalist so I’m really biased, but Edinburgh castle is a stunner.  And the fact it’s been here for so long made me feel better about things in the present… and if I’m going to be brutally honest, I’m nervous about returning to the States following this election.

    Tomorrow is the EUMC Christmas dinner, it’s always nice to get the entire club together for a big social event and force them to not talk about climbing… which is easier than it sounds.  Friday, Moana comes out here in the UK and I haven’t gone to see a film in a while so I figured I’d go to that.  On Saturday, my flat is throwing a Christmas Party.  Next week I’m pent up to revision for my first exam… on Saturday.  By this time in 2 weeks, I’ll be done with this semester of university and headed back to Kansas for Christmas.

     

     

     

     

    Family Visit 2k16 + Scotland Soundtrack 20

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    This week my dad and sister came to visit me.  It was really great to see them before exams get crazy.

    They flew in early on Saturday morning and I met up with them for coffee.  I always enjoy talking history with my dad (he’s basically the reason I study history now) and while I can talk over the phone, it’s a lot nicer talking to someone in person.  Since Dad’s been retired he’s started a whole slue of building projects on the farm.  My sister, Crosby, was pretty excited to come over as well.  She’s just finishing up her Senior Year of High School and next September she’ll be starting University at Cornell College in Iowa.  She’ll be majoring in Musical Theatre and Gender Studies.

    I took them to see my flat and Crosby replies with, ‘Wow your room here is just as messy as your room at home!  It even smells the same!’  Thanks Crob.

    The rest of the week we tried new restaurants and coffeeshops I hadn’t been to yet.  I found some really awesome coffee shops that I’m definitely going back too.  Crosby said she drank enough hot chocolate to last the year.  We don’t let her have coffee… for good reason.

    On Wednesday, I took Crob dress shopping for her Winter Formal because she ‘want[ed] to have a Winter Formal dress from Scotland that no one else will have.’ Typical.  Then we had a sisterly shopping trip aka I gave Dad a reprieve from traveling.

    On Thursday, I balanced class with spending time with them.  But, I think they entertained themselves in the city… it’s hard not being able to find at least something to do here.  That evening we went shopping for Thanksgiving.  Similar to last year, when my Mom came over and cooked dinner, my Dad took up the mantle this year.

    Friday we spend all day cooking and it was honestly really nice… well Dad and Crosby cooked and I peeled potatoes, played music, and hung Christmas lights.  Friday night we had a few friends over for a nice dinner.  It was really nice.

    This morning while I was still passed out in a food coma, Dad and Crosby boarded their flight back to America.  I’ll see them all in three weeks when I’m home for Christmas.  My Grandmother will also be moved into the house which I’m really excited about.

    So that’s a quick update about my life.  I’ve got a cold right now (typical).  And, I’m working on finishing up my last essay.  I just submitted my Human Skeleton essay on: ‘Archaeological human remains are not just another artefact’: Discuss.  Funky fresh topic I know.  The other is for Archaeology about the Traprain Law treasure and what it tells us about Roman Scotland… but that’s the last one.  Finally.  Then it’s on to revision.

    My exams for the year are on the 10th, 12th, and 14th of December so probably going to freak out soon.  But then I’m back to the States on the 17th and back here by the 28th. Short visit but that’s because I’m out to the EUMC Bothy for New Years!

    Anyway, it was really lovely to get to see my family in the ‘calm before the storm.’ It’s always great to see my Dad and discuss history.  Crosby is so excited for University and I’m really excited for her.

     

     

    Bothy Work Party 2k16 + Scotland Soundtrack 19

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    It’s Monday.  Here’s a playlist and some words.

    This weekend I traveled northward to the lovely Glen Licht House in Kintail aka the EUMC club bothy.  Map below.

    Screen Shot 2015-11-22 at 11.24.28 PM

    As a lot of you know already know, I’m the Bothy Apprentice for this year.  Next year I’ll take over as Bothy Secretary.  While the rest of the club was tasked with various renovation projects including cleaning the tiled floor, fitting the new kitchen, or building a boot rack to keep mud off of the previously mentioned new tiled floor.  As Bothy Apprentice, I was tasked with feeding the hungry masses.

    I decided on mass production of potato corn chowder.  Ellie (my sous-chef for the weekend) and I started early around 10:30.  We had a lot of help from other members of the club, including Eilidh and Caitlin, to chop all the vegetables needed for the soup.  Guys we brought a metric fuck ton of potatoes with us.

    And that’s how my day was spent.  We set up shop outside in the gorgeous Highlands, turned on some music (spoiler alert: it’s the playlist above), and set to make four giant vats of soup.

    People kept asking if I needed any extra help but I jokingly responded with, ‘Guys, I’m from the Midwest of the United States.  If there’s one thing we do actually know how to do, it’s making enough food for a small army.’ And then when people asked about the recipe, ‘Um… well, I learned how to cook from my dad, who learned to cook from the United States Marine Corps, so I just sort of throw whatever I have in a giant pot and dump spices in until it tastes good.’

    It was exactly what I needed after this hectic week.

    I needed to just get away from everything for a few days.

    I read a lot over the weekend.  I took two of my favourite book with me: Tomorrow is Now by Eleanor Roosevelt and Leaves of Grass by Walt Whitman.  I read TIN a lot when I’m upset or generally unmotivated.  It’s one of those books you don’t need to necessarily read in order either.  It’s like the Magic 8 ball of books, you can open up to any random page and find the answer you need.  Same goes for LoG. 

    Some food for thought.

    In a sense, nearly all great civilizations that perished did so because they had crystallized, because they were incapable of adapting themselves to new conditions, new methods, new points of view.  It is as though people would literally rather die than change.  Sometimes, seeing the stubborn resistance of large groups of Americans to accepting the existence of totally new conditions, their determination to meet the future as though it were the past, I am deeply puzzled.  How did it happen that a people with constantly developing ideas on methods of production and distribution appears unable to develop new ideas, new points of view, new solutions to the problems of adjustment to change? – ER

    And.

    LONG, too long America,
    Traveling roads all even and peaceful you learn’d from joys and
    prosperity only,
    But now, ah now, to learn from crises of anguish, advancing, grap-
    pling with direst fate and recoiling not,
    And now to conceive and show to the world what your children
    en-masse really are, – WW
    By Saturday night, the soup was done and the hungry masses were happily appeased.  Sunday, I took a short walk through the rain up the valley to the waterfall.  I was soaking wet by the time I got back to the Bothy, but I was happy.  It was chance to clear my head.
    This weekend was a nice break from the real world where I could get out and not have to think too deeply about things.  This week has deeply upset me. I was really fed up with a lot of aspects of humanity.  It was nice to escape everything, eff off to the mountains for 48 hours, and gather my thoughts.
    One last thing.
    This loss hurts but please never stop believing that fighting for what’s right is worth it. – HRC

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    Why I’m Still 110% With Her

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    I watched the election since 9 pm last night until I went to my 9 am tutorial this morning.  I slept less than five minutes.

    This morning was one of those moments when the world just stopped and slowed.  It took me a few minutes to process what had happened. America you threw a nasty punch this morning, it knocked a lot of us down. I know it knocked me down.  I physically couldn’t breath.  I couldn’t comprehend what had happened.

    I was confused and lost and scared.  I panicked.  I sobbed.  It was awful.  I felt like my country didn’t care about me at all.

    But, I had class at 9 am. Drying my eyes, I grabbed my backpack and walked to class.  The election knocked me down, but I refused to prevent it from keeping me from getting back up.

    We have to remember Hillary’s ideas didn’t die with this election.

    We’ve got to get up and keep fighting for change. We might have been defeated here but we only fail if we give up. Failure is what happens when you stop trying.  Defeat is just a growing pain of progress.

    We can’t stay down.  You can cry.  I cried.  But, complaining and blaming won’t do a thing now.  We’ve got to get back up and study harder and work harder.  We have to remember what Hillary stands for, what Bernie stands for, what Obama stands.  The only way things will ever change is if we keep talking, keep writing, keep loud.  We have to move on from this election with elegance and with poise.  Most of all, we have to move on from this election with hope.

    I’m upset.  But, I’m not going to let those emotions turn into despair and sadness.  I’m going to turn it into motivation, because I know this isn’t over.  I’m going to get the best education I can.  I got my first essay back for the year and I got a 75 mark on it.  That’s solidly in the First category.  I was pretty proud but I know I can’t let up now.  I’m going to keep writing this stupid blog in case it makes even a sliver of a difference.  I’m not going to lose hope for the America I know.

    I’ve said this before and I’ll say it again: this isn’t the America I know.  It is not the America I am going to represent.  I stand for a tolerant, inclusive America – not a country fueled by fear.

    We have to remember Hillary’s ideas didn’t die with this election.  

    It is our job to keep them alive. 

    Just to offer a little hope yesterday:

    • Catherine Cortez Masto (Nevada) became the first Latina US Senator.
    • Kate Brown (Oregon) became the first LGBT Governor ever.
    • Ilhan Omar (Minnesota) became our first Somalian-American Muslim woman legislator.
    • Kamala Harris (California) became our first female African-American senator since 1999.

    The next four years are going to be rough.  But we have two options: we can hide or we stand proudly in the streets in solidarity with our fellow Americans. We must refuse to cower in the face of hatred and bigotry.  As Michelle Obama said, ‘When they go low, we go high.’  We have to stand together and show the world that we are not a people ruled by hatred.

    Watching Hillary’s concession speech showed me that while she might not be our next president, you can be damn well sure she’s going to continue to fight for us.  She hasn’t lost hope.  I haven’t either.

    So today after having one of the worst panic attacks I’ve ever had, I went to my 9 am.  I grabbed a coffee and worked on an essay.  I went to my 11 am archaeology lecture.  I grabbed an afternoon pint with some friends.  Then I went home and slept for six hours.  I was tired.  I was upset.  I got knocked down, but you can be damn sure that I’m getting back up.

    I remember looking at a poster at my Junior High School when I was about 13. It had all the presidents on it and I remember thinking about how one day we’d finally have a women up there. It didn’t happen this year, but Hillary’s ideas didn’t die with this election.

    I am beyond saddened by the result, but I know that we need to keep moving forward. We can allow this to knock us down, but we cannot allow this outcome to keep us from getting back up. We cannot dwell in our sadness and regret. We have to channel those emotions into creating the America I know we can be. We have to keep fighting for tolerance and equality.

    So, yeah, I’m still with her.