Twentysixteeny*

*defined by the great Frank LoMonte: (adj.); not just a tragedy, but an easily avoidable tragedy the senseless occurrence of which unsettles one’s faith that life is fair and that mankind is fundamentally good.

This is how I’m feeling these days: Twentysixteeny. Frank, who is the director of the Student Press Law Center — a wonderful organization that defends the First Amendment among students — was using the death of Lucky, the beloved albino squirrel at the University of North Texas, as the latest example of the term.

Vaya con Dios, Lucky.

I didn’t know Lucky, but his death seems as good an example of this year’s brand of ennui as any. At this point, there are too many examples to count. But the ones I find most wrenching and senseless are those that undermine my faith in my fellow citizens.

I’ve never hidden my position 0n the left side of the front lines of the Culture War. But more often than not, I see myself as a emissary between the warring factions — someone whose blue-collar upbringing, fancy education and identity as a Christian peacemaker positions me as an honest broker in bridging misunderstandings and offering new perspectives of The Other, at least in social media, journalistic and academic spaces.

The Obama years have been frustrating from time to time, but this year knocked me on my ass. I’m not alone. Consider this Washington Post headline: Michelle Obama gave somber exit interview to Oprah Winfrey.

“See, now we are feeling what not having hope feels like, you know. … This past election was challenging for me to watch as a citizen,” she told Winfrey.

First Lady of the United States Michelle LaVaughn Robinson Obama is having her sense of hope challenged! What chance is there for the rest of us?

Same, First Lady. Same.

It’s been about six weeks since the election of He-Who-Shall-Not-Be-Normalized. This is an incomplete list of my responses:

• Crying in stunned silence
• Turning off the news for literally weeks. (Keep in mind, I teach journalism and study news coverage of politics. I am the junkiest of news junkies.)
• Donating to the ACLU, Planned Parenthood’s fund for preventative women’s healthcare, the Committee to Protect Journalists, ProPublica; subscribing to the digital versions of the New York Times and Washington Post.
• Seeking out organizations committed to resisting H-W-S-N-B-N’s worst policy proposals — specifically, participating in acts of resistance led by Wall-of-Us and Indivisible.
• Seeking out advice and camaraderie from the similarly heartbroken.

To any trolls who may be lurking, let me clarify that these responses are not the result of “my team” losing. I survived a Reagan childhood in a pro-union Democratic family. I was a happy and obnoxious teen during the first Bush term. The Bush, Part II years were tough, I’m not gonna lie. But even then, I could see his charm and empathize with those who supported his view of the world.

But this… This is something altogether different. The Electoral College victory of the man who is about to take office is a wholesale rejection of American values of common sense, meritocracy, equality, generosity, decency and social progress. That’s troubling enough, but what’s worse is knowing that so many people I know and love supported it. Most of them supported this man reluctantly, some justifying their choice out of party loyalty or policy goals rather than personal admiration, but support him they did.

My fall semester is over now, so in the days to come, I’m going to try to write some things that help me make sense of the world and determine a path for the year ahead. Feeling twentysixteeny has to give way to a new state — one of productivity, positivity. In that spirit, I’m reflecting on some wise words shared with me by dear friends. Right now, they’re all I’ve got.

“Be joyful, though you have considered the facts.” — Wendell Berry

“This is precisely the time when artists go to work. There is no time for despair, no place for self-pity, no need for silence, no room for fear. We speak, we write, we do language. That is how civilizations heal.” — Toni Morrison, in The Nation

Time to go to work — speaking, writing and doing language.

(Craft projects are helpful, too.)