Dear Hillary- i miss you already. I didn't realize what a steady presence you were in my life until you disappeared. I was excited to know you were out taking a hike with your dogs recently, the first spotting since our ugly election and thought how refreshing it must have been to have that hike reported as just a hike, rather than a final walk before your brain tumor takes you out, or hmm, those hiking shoes are hiding a severe pronation problem due to debilitating scoliosis, or you were secretly meeting in the woods with a Goldman Sachs official to pick up a cache of money stashed away in the hollow of a dead tree. It was just a walk and I wish I were the woman who, by good fortune, came across your path. I would have said "thank you" for these years of dedication and hard work for the causes you believe in. Most people don't take the time to get personally involved in the causes that stir their hearts. You are one of the rare ones who has dedicated your life to working for the "others"; the working class, women, children, families, those who have no voice. You have been their champion and are certainly mine. I'm sure you are worried about the direction our country is about to take, as i and the majority of our citizens who voted for you are. So, please, even though it is understandable if you wanted to leave the country and tell the media and the politicians and the pundits and the entire republican party to "fuck off" , please don't. We still need you. We are scared and angry and need your steadiness and experience to guide us through this shitfest we are about to enter. Perhaps being outside of the political circle will allow you to have greater clout, free from the unbridled scrutiny into every aspect of your life. I don't know where the vitriol toward you comes from but you must have been hitting buttons and sending off red flags, making those who should be uneasy, uneasy. Something about your strength and female moxie, no doubt. The non-scandals you were put through and the unfounded nonsense that was used as a distraction to keep the country focused on trivia rather than substance, were weathered by you in a dignified and grittingly graceful way. Now, we are in quite a pickel and must reap what we sowed. I, for one, want you to know that I had nothing to do with this travesty of an election other than defending you, arguing for you and voting for you. And while i did get a bit caught up in the first woman president narrative i supported you because of your values, leadership, experience, talent and intelligence. The woman thing was just a bonus. I feel a tremendous sense of loss that you won't be our 45th president and instead we will be stuck in a reality nightmare with a two-bit charlatan and his entourage of characters right out of Mad Magazine. We really don't deserve you but we need you. Please don't be a stranger, be our firebrand.
With all the admiration i can muster through the tears, i am respectfully yours, Laurel. p.s. In order to cope with the election results and to help quell the anger by morphing it into activism i have started a group at my workplace called, Coffee with Hillary. I work at the University of California, San Diego and know many co-workers and students who are experiencing depressed states of mind similar to mine. So, the idea is to meet every two months to have a political therapy session, share ideas on how to combat the nasty things coming down the pike and activate. I use your name as our inspiration. I hope the concept will catch on at other campuses and that it's OK with you.
