The land was laid bare and the bodies of the dead littered the streets; streets that were covered in blood. In the distance, the screams and lamentations of women and children pierced the air and threatened to shatter eardrums. The smell of death and destruction permeated the air and created a weight and denseness to every breath. The fear and sadness surrounded every living thing that remained; it was as though any hope of life and joy had been sucked from the human existence and left in its wake was nothing but despair. The skies were permanently darkened, buildings and institutions that had stood the test of time were decimated, and survivors were fearful to even consider a future.
Okay, not really, but reading some of the post on social media after the election, one would think that the end of the world had come and stripped all Americans of their humanity and dignity. Hillary Clinton lost in her bid to be the country's first female president, defeated by one of the most disliked men in all of politics, Donald Trump, and far too many people are taking it personally. Trump was called every name in the book by the elitists on either side of the aisle and yet he triumphed and that really pisses people off. Even today, there are people who have lost their damned minds and are protesting in the streets! What in the hell is wrong with us?
This country will survive. We survived Jimmy Carter, Gerald Ford and Bill Clinton. The country will survive Donald Trump and perhaps it will awaken the establishment douchebags to see their douchebaggery. Maybe, just maybe, terrorists will take us a little more seriously now as well.
On a local level, there were some serious surprises.
SQ779: While I believed that our teachers and children deserved better than this proposal, I really figured that it would pass. After all, they had Toby Keith in the ads...but I digress. It was believed that the initiative would pass, teachers would receive a pay raise and administrators would have s slush fund to play with, but no. It didn't happen. Teachers still need a pay raise and we need to do something better to fund education because the lottery wasn't the magic bullet, was it? Hopefully, the legislature can do something honest to address the issue and make sure that the administrators keep their filthy paws off of the money that will be for the classrooms and for teachers.
SQ790: I really thought that Oklahoma would pass this measure and not because it was the right thing to do, but because of our desire to mix God and government at every turn. Perhaps Pastor Paul Blair's loss in the primary was a harbinger of things to come that Oklahomans understand that we need to be careful what we ask for, because we might just get it. First, it would be spending money on the 10 Commandments (the ones we couldn't keep and so Christ had to die for us), then it would mean that Islam would get a monument, then Hinduism, and so on so forth. Tax dollars spent on one religious institution would mean, by necessity, an entitlement from all religious expressions. Kudos to the voters for shooting this one down.
Oklahoma County Sheriff: Whetsel got another four years, defeating an aggressive and determined Republican Mike Christian. Whetsel will now face the County Commissioners about financial wrongdoing. This was a surprise. Even though Whetsel was a recognized name, he spent money on television and frankly, that was a big plus for his campaign because Christian was pretty much nowhere to be found. Maybe he spent too much on his consultants...but again, I digress.
Yet, amid all this madness, here we stand. We still live in the greatest country on the planet to say or believe anything different is just silliness.
We can do this.
Of course, these are just my opinions and I could be wrong, but I seriously doubt it.
Gorilla
