Where do I begin?

Consoling my mother who thought she would vote a woman into the Oval Office in her lifetime?

Trying to find something to say other than ‘I’m sorry’ to my friends who have children and have to try to explain to them (especially the girls) what happened and why?

Pretending I have a comeback for the Muslim women who are in fear of wearing hijab in public, when I’ve been looking at the map myself and saying ‘I like road trips, but I am NOT taking any chances of a car breaking down in me in rural America right now.’

I’m like everyone else right now (or I guess, half of you).  I’m angry.  I’m shocked.  Frankly, I’m depressed.  I’ve already dipped back into a couple of my old vices, and frankly, if you feel mentally shot (and of course you’re not hurting anybody), a sanity check is as understandable right now as it’s ever been.

The gallows humor has provided a little relief.  But it’s been very fleeting today.  I don’t have any ‘everything is going to be alright’ quotes for you right now.  The shock and the embarrassment (for those of us who think about how we’re perceived by the rest of the world) is too strong.  Among many questions that come to mind today…

How Sexist Are We Exactly?  Phrased another way, would Bernie have beat Trump? (Possibly but him being Jewish might have had a similar effect). Would Joe Biden, who’s definitely in the same ballpark as the President-elect in terms of being charismatic and passionate, and in the same ballpark as Hilary as coming from the working class and having spent a lifetime in public service, would Joe have won?

Would Hilary have beaten any of the ‘traditional’ Republican candidates, or is the Clinton fatigue that strong?  Maybe the most depressing hypothetical that ties to the original question…what type of woman will one day become President of the United States?  Black people know better than most how ‘perfect’ Obama had to be to win and thrive as President.  And the vibe many of us feel today, to paraphrase the great Paul Mooney, is that, ‘It was OK for us to have a little fun, but we had too much fun’ with a black First Family.  And there had to be repercussions.

What’s done is done for now.  For the near future, I think I’m done writing scripts.  One of many things this year as a whole has made me consider is, my true passion as a writer (and the full scope of my vocabulary) comes out in nonfiction.  And with a Republican President, a Republican Congress and a Republican Supreme Court, I don’t think I’ll have a shortage of topics or events that stoke my fire. When I speak as I’m speaking now, you’re clearly getting the voice of a Muslim, an African-American, a liberal.  When I’m doing skits and plays and movies, that’s me too, but that’s me as a performer bringing another person’s voice to life. I take a lot of pride in helping others bring their vision to life as well, so it’s not that the two things automatically contradict each other.   But right now I feel, maybe the time has come to be even stricter in terms of ‘artist/citizen’.  We’ll see how it plays out.

Like I said, I have no platitudes to try to make you feel better right now.  A lot of us feel we took an historic L yesterday.  We’re down but not out.

Never out.