In The Leopards’ Den
By I’m going to leap right into the leopards’ den.
Not everyone should be required to be as aware of politics and government as the front pagers and commenters on this blog are. The country depends on people just living their lives – wanting a happy family and doing what they do, whether it’s marking trees for the Forest Service or teaching gradeschool.
It’s actually been like that at times, under Democratic presidencies. But there was an ugly undercurrent that should have gotten more attention.
This young woman was living her life. She wanted children through IVF. She got a decent job with the Forest Service and hoped to build a better life than her parents’. And the person she voted for is now taking all that away.
Cooperknew the people in her life meant well, but she wanted her future to be different from theirs. She had grown up watching her family struggle as her mother lost one job, then another, then another. She was justa few months shy of her graduate degree and close to a promotion that could nearly double her salary. Even $50,000 or $60,000 a year, she thought, could helpget her a house a few counties over, with better schools.
I’ll admit to some prejudices. I think that people at the Forest Service are doing the godesses’ work. I can remember getting some political things wrong when I was a twenty-something.
I wake up every day and think about how much better it might have been. How we might be able to think about dealing with an expansionist Russia, building health care for all, finding a way to help the people panhandling on the street medians here in Santa Fe. I will continue to be angry at the MAGA haters and resent having to think about mitigating the damage that Donald Trump is doing to the country.
But Ryleigh Cooper doesn’t deserve that anger. She believed what Trump said. We’ve all been surprised at his actions since January 20. He lies like he breathes. Let’s be angry at that.