Still4Hill

Hillary Cinton did not lose the 2016 election. I refuse to say she did. She did not win the electoral college, but she won the popular vote. The night of November 8, 2016, when the electoral vote went to Donald Trump, cameras focused on scores of Hillary supporters, my colleagues in battle, in tears. I did not cry.

I did not cry that night, nor the next day, nor the many days since. I did grieve, however. It took the form of anger. Here on these pages I ranted, resisted, gathered the troops to help with the recounts, and waged a struggle against the policies coming down the pike from the incoming administration, but I never cried.

A few days ago, Lily Adams, whom I encountered working on the social nets for the campaign, asked me to participate in a book of letters to Hillary. I composed a tribute.

I let the draft sit in a document file for awhile, went back from time to time, tweaked, added, cleaned up, closed, reopened over a period of a day or so. Then, yesterday, I submitted it.

I did not watch James Comey’s testimony yesterday nor Neil Gorsuch’s confirmation hearings. I did watch “All the President’s Men” and “All the Way” about LBJ on cable. Oddly, after submitting that tribute, every little thing set me off big time yesterday. I cried. I cried about what Nixon and his pack of criminals did to us. I cried for LBJ. We gave him a hard time, my generation, and wore him down, but he did so much that now we stand to lose under a ruthless administration. A second Johnson administration would likely have brought about even more social justice laws and certainly would have obviated that first Nixon administration. But we demonized him with a credibility gap, demonstrations, and our resentment that he was not JFK. I felt bad, and I cried.

I even cried over a song during movie credits. I cried my heart out. Every little thing set me off again.

This morning, I awoke to an email from Lily with a link to my entry in the new Hillary book. When I clicked back to the book’s main page I saw this message from the editor.

This election has triggered so many heartfelt emotions, both before and after election day. Will you kindly share your own emotional journey and experiences since the election in a letter to Hillary? I humbly believe that it will be personally therapeutic, as well as, an important testament about our American values and our continued support of Hillary.

We will present these letters in a volume to Hillary as a token of our admiration and loyalty. Contributors will have an opportunity to buy a copy, too.

By adding your story, you are agreeing to our terms of use. To be considered for the book, please contribute your story by April 15. We will include as many letters as possible.

– Dr. Lynda Y. de la Viña, Editor

Wow! Did Dr. de la Viña hit the nail on the head! Was it emotional? When I was writing, I did not think so. I thought I was being my usual cool-headed, organized self. I thought I was speaking from my head. In fact, I was speaking from my heart. Was it therapeutic? Yes! I did not expect writing a tribute to Hillary to be an exercise in therapy, but it was. I finally cried.

Maybe you, too, have some thoughts to share with our enormous Hillary community about her and about the election we fought through together. If you would like to contribute to this project, go here to the homepage and submit your thoughts and feelings.