11/9: Have We Seen this Before? (Or, The Night of Broken Dreams)

Reading about the post-election wailing and grief or the counter-reaction of "stop the whining," helped me realize the personal value of my coping option: turning a political lemon into poetic lemonade. Enjoy...or not!

My biggest fear in this election campaign was that Donald Trump was providing a platform for social-cultural hatred, a hatred by a variety of supporters, surrogates, and sycophants.  Such flame-throwing typically targets groups based on race, ethnicity, nationality, geography, gender, sexual identity, and/or religion.  I don’t believe Mr. Trump is a fanatical hater, more a conditional one:  a) when someone rubs his ego the wrong way (alas, this happens too easily), b) when women complain Mr. T has “rubbed them the wrong way” (alas, this happens too frequently), and c) when he strategically or spontaneously bullies or demonizes “the other” to gain supporters and votes and win a “negotiation” or political battle.  I hope my fears are mostly baseless.  I pray (despite being a Jewish atheist) that the new President will resist the urge to Trumpism, to become a dictatorial, Putin-like “strong man” repressing dissenting voices and constitutional rights.  I will congratulate Mr. Trump hardily if he genuinely helps rebuild our infrastructure and the economic options and standing of working-class families.  In truth, many of his other avowed premises and promises frighten me – personally, for our democratic ethos, and for our fragile planet.  So, I will be vigilant.  To loosely quote Ronald Reagan:  warily trust and verify.  Until then…I versify!

11/9:  Have We Seen this Before?

(Or, The Night of Broken Dreams)

Please do not think me dumb

Or even merely craven, yet

Will 11/9 become

Our homegrown 9/11?

Ah, the ironic paradox

The choice of free election.

Have we unleashed Pandora’s Box:

A swarm of white-male venom?

Oh tell me Mr. Trumpty

How do you run on empty?

Oh tell me Humpty Trumpty

How many have you dumptied?

Forgive my taste in history

To look back does no good

Still…a little pre-war Germany

And streets running with blood?

Why am I compelled to rant?

Perhaps a mere sore loser.

Though not a recent immigrant

(More “word artist” itinerant)

For you…does my life matter?

Oh tell me Mr. Trumpty

Why are you so grumpty?

Oh tell me Trumpty Dumpty

How many have you humptied?

“Why are you so paranoid?”

“He will drain the swamp!”

I gaze into the krystal ** void:

One big internment camp!

I do not fear the Mighty Wall

For I will not be barred

But one and all, from grace may fall

When “vermin” are gold-starred. ***

** The choice of the “kystal” spelling is a blend of “crystal” and “Kristallnacht” also referred to as the Night of Broken Glass.   “Kristallnacht was a pogrom against Jews throughout Nazi Germany on 9–10 November 1938, carried out by SA paramilitary forces and German civilians. German authorities looked on without intervening. The name Kristallnacht comes from the shards of broken glass that littered the streets after Jewish-owned stores, buildings, and synagogues had their windows smashed.

Estimates of the number of fatalities caused by the pogrom have varied. Early reporting estimated that 91 Jewish people were murdered during the attacks. Modern analysis of German scholarly sources by historians such as Richard J. Evans puts the number much higher. When deaths from post-arrest maltreatment and subsequent suicides are included, the death toll climbs into the hundreds. Additionally, 30,000 were arrested and incarcerated in Nazi concentration camps.” (Wikipedia)

*** During the Nazi reign, Jews in Germany (and elsewhere, I believe), were mandated to have gold Jewish Stars sewn on their outer garments, to single out and stigmatize them when in public, increasing their chance for ridicule and much worse intimidation.

© Mark Gorkin  2016

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Mark Gorkin, MSW, LICSW, "The Stress Doc" ™, a nationally acclaimed speaker, writer, and "Psychohumorist" ™, is a founding partner and Stress Resilience and Trauma Debriefing Consultant for the Nepali Diaspora Behavioral Health & Wellness Initiative.  He is also a "Leadership Consultant" for the international Embry-Riddle Aeronautics University, HQd in Daytona, FL.  A former Stress and Violence Prevention Consultant for the US Postal Service, he has led numerous Pre-Deployment Stress Resilience-Humor-Team Building Retreats for the US Army.  The Doc is the author of Practice Safe Stress, The Four Faces of Anger, and Preserving Human Touch in a High Tech World.  Mark’s award-winning, USA Today Online "HotSite" – www.stressdoc.com – was called a "workplace resource" by National Public Radio (NPR).  For more info, email:  stressdoc@aol.com.