SOKA
Meditations on Elections by Sofia Dugas
I want to thank Jessica Butchleitner, the author of the two-part series 50 Women for coming to Soka and asking about how we were feeling after the election. There were many students who expressed disappointment and actual fear. She reads excerpts from her book of women from Kenya and Yemen who are truly brave pioneers of justice and peace in their communities and reminded us that this fight is not new. She offered us words of condolences and stories of hope and urged us to exemplify what we believe in. She told us with conviction that the best way to defuse hatred and anger is with dignity and respect. She encouraged us to talk–a lot– to share our stories and to listen to others’ stories. Here are my reflections after the elections: Weekly Meditations Nov, 9, 2016 Donald Trump is the President. I am lying on the floor–it is 1:34 am– all I am thinking is, how did this happen? Winded, exhausted, and distraught I begin imagining and visualizing all the possible effects of this election. I check Facebook... it is infiltrated with fierce accusatory statuses, celebratory victory announcements, desperate pleas, calls to action, letters of fear, and hurt-filled rants. Overwhelmed. I lay on the floor. I lay in a pile of clothes and look around my disastrous room which seems to reflects the state of my mind. How did this happen?
Pearl Meditations
So What Now? Later today– We just received the news that a beloved professor, Marie-Rose has died. The weight of this day... I have seen never before seen professors break down; I have never before seen so many of my peers and friends distraught.
18
Despite the heavy cloud hanging in the air, I feel an incredible sense of unity. The last time I felt this sense of unity was after the July 22, 2011 massacre in Norway. I was 15 years old and had been living near Oslo with a Norwegian family as part of an international peace and cultural exchange program. The attacks: A radical far-right Norwegian man bombed the building of the Prime Minister killing 8 people. He then dressed as a policeman, traveled to an island that was hosting the annual Labor Party Youth Camp where there 700 youth from the ages 13-22 gather, and he proceeded to open fire. He had planned to decapitate Gro Harlem Brundtland– a former prime minister of Norway, the first woman elected to the post, a feminist and supporter of multiculturalism– but she had left the island just before he had arrived. He declared “you will all die today Marxists!” His plan was to kill every single person on the island but after killing 69 youths, he called the police and turned himself in. When he was finally confronted by police officers on the island, he said, “This is politically motivated. The country is being invaded by foreigners.”
Pearl magazine