Day Three

https://youtu.be/IGMW6YWjMxw 


INTAKE

4oz OJ with multivitamins
1 banana
8oz milk smoothie 170

Day Two

I was on campus yesterday (November 9 - my post dates are off due to internet access issues) - the day after the election. The mood was so somber, but people came together. It's a scary time for so many on my campus. 

I attend school at UIC - one of the most diverse college campuses in the country. Many of the students in my classes are of a race or ethnicity or religion, or gender which Trump has expressed issue with. Some are undocumented but here safely under DACA - an executive order my president enacted because Congress has been unable to pass the DREAM Act, even though they've had it over a decade. Trump has said he will remove all Obama executive orders. 

There was a gathering on the quad and the first words were that it would be peaceful. I appreciate that. Whatever comes next can easily escalate.

Aaron Sorkin to his daughter Roxy:

“Well the world changed late last night in a way I couldn’t protect us from. That’s a terrible feeling for a father. I won’t sugarcoat it—this is truly horrible,” Sorkin wrote in the strongly-worded letter.

Sorkin called out president-elect Trump, along with his supporters, with angry words and highlighted the fear many groups are feeling for the future of the country.

“Hate was given hope,” Sorkin said.
But after that, he offered a plan to turn despair at the outcome of the election into a positive force for change.
“We’ll fucking fight,” he wrote. “We’re not powerless, we’re not voiceless... We get involved. We do what we can to fight injustice anywhere we see it.”
The 2020 election will be Roxy’s first chance to vote after turning 18 and Sorkin, like any father, wants to make sure she has hope for the future.
“The battle isn’t over, it’s just begun,” he said. “Grandpa fought in World War II and when he came home this country handed him an opportunity to make a great life for his family. I will not hand his granddaughter a country shaped by hateful and stupid men.”

 



INTAKE

4oz OJ with multivitamins
40oz water
12oz iced tea
2 eggs with spinach
1/2 cupcake :(

Day One

So I spent election night bartending, and I still cannot believe what happened.
I know it was always between those two. And neither I like. But polls have been telling us
that Hillary had pulled ahead after the latest Trump scandal, and I really believed it. Many I
wanted to believe better of the American public.
Once he took Ohio, I knew the polls were wrong. And it started to sink in. Holy shit!
Never in my lifetime would I think this could happen in my country.
My focus has now expanded.
 
And luckily I have lost most of  my appetite. And I've decided to give up my morning espresso.
Should be interesting.

I took my weight (morning and evening) and measurements as well yesterday.


INTAKE

4oz OJ with multivitamins
24oz water
12oz iced tea
1 oatmeal raisin bar
2 eggs
1 cup popcorn

Day Zero

DAY ZERO

It’s Not … But it can be again

https://youtu.be/VMqcLUqYqrs

I sat in my CLJ 110 (rights, justice and the law) class yesterday, reading through the UN report written last year on US discrimination on women … I glanced thru their recommendations … and my mind wandered to the upcoming election which seems to have so much about women. I wondered what would happen next.

I voted for Jill Stein over a week ago but I know she doesn’t win. Neither does Gary Johnson. Most likely it will be Hillary. A woman of fallible character and the worst of my gender. Trump? What of him? I now know that almost half my fellow countrymen are openly sexist, racist xenophobes, or at the very least are willing to elect the most despicable candidate to enter a presidential race in my lifetime to counter a fear they have … will they win the vote? And of what are they fearful? I cannot understand.

The crazy uncle who rants about those damn foreigners, those construction workers that intimidate women who walk by, those radical tea partiers that want to ram pro life agendas down the throats (or should I say vaginal probes up the vaginas) of women who find themselves pregnant … these people have found a community … a voice … acceptance.

Reading the report provided clarity when reviewing what other countries think of us in an unbiased and informed way. I think my academic pursuits, as has been much in life, have been infiltrated with a Western bias – a belief we are somehow superior – we know best.

I know it isn’t true … deep down I haven’t believed that in years. But being the eternal optimist, I have no doubt we could be again, however it would require a commitment from all of us … and a shift in our national discourse. We need to - at the same time – get back to basics, yet really become better than we ever have been.

I am an idealist but also a realist. Disillusioned absolutely. I know it’s a rigged game yet I still haven’t given up wanting to play. I still believe in the dream.

It is difficult to say what happened over the course of the past several months. I initially supported Bernie Sanders however school and work and interning didn’t allow me time to actively participate. I voted for him in the primaries and that was the beginning and end of my support. I didn’t do any of the things I did for Obama. I feel bad about that now. I rationalize I would have had Bernie been the nominee.

I remember saying more than once, if I must I will vote for Clinton. As a last resort. I said this even before the Republican nominee was Trump.

But then I was asked to sign a petition to get Jill Stein of the Green Party on the ballot in Illinois while walking near campus. I researched who she was. I liked her party platforms. She seemed well-reasoned and balanced. A doctor who practiced a more holistic lifestyle. Still, I worked on the Obama campaign for almost two years. His superpac after that. I have three Christmas cards from the First Family. I’ve regularly attended the Kankakee Democratic Party’s meetings and events. I’ve phone banked and marched and poll watched and organized alongside them. They were one of the deciding factors to move to this county from Iroquois. They were my tribe, or so I thought.

Of course there was always a vibe I felt being a single woman at functions - like I was unwelcome by some. Confirmed by an incident when the wife of a political ally told me to ‘keep walking’ and ‘stay away’ from her husband at the 4^th of July parade. A little old lady, telling me to stay away from her husband – plenty old enough to be my father. But I digress.

My support of Jill Stein within this circle was met rather rudely. I was called irrational. My vote would be a ‘protest’ vote, after all my candidate was not electable and could not govern.  I stopped attending meetings. If there was an alternative to Hillary Clinton, of course I would take it.  My vote is sacred.

Of course the idea is not wrong. I was protesting. My party betrayed me, so when I saw a conscionable way out, I took it. My candidate realistically was not electable because she was not given a voice within the system so she remained virtually unknown. The media panders to the two-party system and its candidates, and with a few exceptions ignores or antagonizes third party candidates. Could Jill Stein govern? She has great ideas, and her voice is her own as she is free of corporate funding. But she could be perceived as lacking experience. Additionally, third party candidates don’t get attention, and therefore don’t get properly vetted.

I begin a 73 day ‘fast’ tomorrow. I will limit my intake to 500 calories or less.

I plan to begin campaigns to change the primary process and the presidential debates. Every vote should count, and people should be able to see all the candidates who’ve made it on the ballots discuss the issues constructively. People deserve to understand the issues and where the candidates stand on them.