I don’t know if any of you know what it means to know people or be the person who writes letters in green ink (chances though are if you are a green ink person, you most likely aren’t aware of it J). I’ve encountered these people numerous times. For example, I encountered these people whilst working in a customer service position a few years back for a hotel chain in the UK. We used to get complaints that went on for pages by someone who wrote pages and pages regarding an issue they had with a hotel stay. The letter was written in bold angry green ink, often in all caps. The letter may not have literally been written in green ink, but the implication was that they were people who spent the majority of their time ranting and raving about the littlest thing that upset their daily lives.
Another example of green ink people are the ones who write ‘scrolly’ green ink emails that go on for more than one screen on your smart phone. There is no reasoning with these people. They see things their way and they are angry, angry, angry!
Finally, in my previous role as Chief of Staff at the Police and Crime Commissioner, we’d get similar ‘green ink’ complaints. The issues were more serious than a poor stay at a hotel, but, invariably the tone was the same. I remember one woman who complained and complained and the issue eventually got escalated to me. There was no appeasing her. Even saying sorry wasn’t enough. I don’t want to stereotype them here for fear of sounding politically incorrect, but I’m sure you all have encountered green ink people.
Because I’ve become so invested in the American Presidential election I’ve posted endless articles and links to articles on Facebook and Twitter. I finally reached a crisis point yesterday, November 1st after posting like a mad woman in response to FBI Director Comey’s letter to Congress that said they found some emails on the computer of Anthony Weiner that was jointly used by he and his estranged spouse and senior Clinton aide Huda Abedin, that might have some bearing on the investigation of Clinton’s use of a personal server for State Department emails. To me, the timing, vagueness and inaccuracy of this letter, coming as it did eleven days before the election constitutes interfering in an election and attempting to influence it for Donald Trump. Both senior Republican and Democratic congressional leaders and pundits including even people like Glen Beck, a staunch conservative pundit, protested about this.
Honestly, if Comey’s action sways the election to the point Trump wins, I will protest long and hard about this injustice. It’s just wrong. The point I want to make here though is that this stoked my worry that Donald Trump might win the election to the point it was stressing me out. I have been losing sleep and waking up in the night and not getting on with the constructive projects I should be working on! A feverish sort of madness overtook me which culminated yesterday morning (Tuesday, November 1st) when I cried on my husband’s shoulder about how frustrated I was about the election and the implications of a Trump win and cried, “I’m becoming a green ink lady!” I was becoming consumed and obsessed with something I ultimately cannot control.
For me the election poses a stark choice between two world views and about two different visions of what the United States should and could be. Trump’s vision is one of fear mongering; it is a dark vision about how American is no longer great and somehow he will restore it to greatness. Clinton’s vision is more one of hope and isn’t fear based. Her vision is one of inclusiveness for all whereas Trump stirs up racial fears and tensions. I see Trump’s vision as being proto-fascist—the topic for another blog post which I have in draft form but haven’t posted yet.
People I have warned come back with well, Hillary has done this, Hillary has done that. I know all the arguments against her and for her. I end up with the position that she has the experience, presence, intellectual capacity, an ability to work across the aisle, a set of detailed well thought public policies for the future, and a broad network of experts she can call upon to advise her. To me Trump does not meet the Commander in Chief or Head of State test. One must wonder what advisers he would draw upon as he doesn’t listen to the ones he has. His world view is narrow and isolationist and he has demonstrated time and time again that he has little empathy. (I could count the ways here and believe me, I have posted article after article on social media as to how he has demonstrated lack of empathy for women, for refugees, for Muslims, for African Americans, etc.)
I have gone on record that I stand against him and all he stands for in terms of his misogyny, racism, and his negative view of the United States. The United States is a great country; the economy is better than it’s been since before the 2008 Great Recession. Unemployment is down, income is up. I think it’s far more productive now to begin thinking about the strengths we have as a nation and build upon those.
The issue here for me in this blog is when does legitimate anger about current and potential injustice cross into green ink territory? It’s okay to be angry and upset about injustice because it’s what motivates us to do something about it to change it.
So, I have done all that I can for now. I have warned people repeatedly about the dangers of voting for Trump without being heard. It seems like people filter the evidence through their world view and to be fair, I filter the evidence through mine. It’s frustrating. It’s like living in parallel universes. I often think they are green ink people and I am sure they think I am a green ink woman!
Many of my own friends and family are voting for Trump. I don’t understand it. I just don’t. And they don’t understand me. But, one thing I do understand, and I hope they understand the same about me, is that they are still my friends and family and that I love them. And I understand that they genuinely want what’s best for them, their families and for the country, and I hope they know that about me too. I hope and pray that as different communities in America we can move beyond the polarization and rhetoric of this divisive Presidential Election after November 9th and work constructively together to create a better future for ourselves, our families, future generations, and our nation.
The die for me is cast. I have done all I can and I have voted and I have warned until I am blue in the face. I hereby give up trying to persuade anyone about how to vote. I can’t control if or how people will vote at this point (not that I ever could!). So now I need to trust the wisdom of the American people and a sovereign transcendent being/force/spirit that gives human beings free will but who is active in the affairs of men and women.
What are the common areas where we can agree and build up together in ways that avoid demonizing each other? How can we stop hurling black and white clichés at each other without listening and empathizing with another person’s point of view and their reality and start to listen and empathize and see the ambiguities in these complex issues? In fact, for me, to continue viewing things in terms of black and white and demonizing the other and not actively trying to find the spaces where we can agree and have dialogue is the very definition of what it means to be a green ink person! I refuse to be a green ink person! I hope you will too.
I honestly don’t know what that looks like because if Trump wins, I acknowledge that I will be bitterly disappointed. I will argue against decision and policies he’s going to implement if they violate my sense of ethics and justice. And I would expect Republicans to do the same if Clinton wins. What I do know that we need to come to the meeting place, the space, where we all aspire for better lives for ourselves and our children. I can’t hate the people whom I disagree with as I know that most of them are good people who have a different vision than I do of what that looks like.
What might it look like practically to move beyond being a green ink person? One example for me of what it looks like is embodied in the recent photograph of Michelle Obama and George W Bush, Jr. embracing at the opening of the African American museum in Washington, D.C. Although I was firmly opposed to Bush’s foreign policy and his taking us into the war in Afghanistan (which I was vehemently opposed to and wrote about at the time when Republicans were making it sound like everyone who was opposed to the War in Iraq was a traitor to the United States and unpatriotic), I can see the good in George W. Bush. I am not going to continue to write him off as evil and un-redeemable forever in my mind because of the Iraq War. His legacy is nuanced and he does have the capacity to change. His friendship with the Obama’s is indicative of how he is not the Iraq War, but he’s a frail human who has positive and negative qualities and who makes mistakes, but is redeemable. It’s a green ink position to keep him forever frozen in that space of time.
Instead can choose to see his record as mixed and can choose to stop demonizing him. For example, he and his administration did some amazing things for women and girls who were being sexually trafficked, an issue near and dear to my heart. I can still criticize him for the things I think he I think he got wrong. But, it means I don’t completely write him off as a person or as a President.
A huge issue is abortion. Instead of thinking that legislating for or against abortion or advocating politically one way or the other about it, what are creative, imaginative ways we can actively work to create situations where fewer women and girls need or want abortions? How can we increase access to birth control and better jobs for women and girls so that they can control the number of pregnancies they have and support the children they already have and will have?
What other pictures/events/articles/thinking/meetings are there out there that are metaphors for this space? Can you think of more examples? Reply and share examples or those who have my email address, email me with examples. I will then post a blog with more examples and pictures of this space to encourage all of us with the good news that we can bridge the polarization in American society and work together for the good of all its citizens.
I will be honest that if Trump wins, I will struggle with this! And of course, for now I’m sanguine, but I’m sure I will descend into green ink territory a few more times before November 8th—I hope not, but I am all too human, sigh! Anyhow, I am sure, you like me, cannot wait for November 9th to come.
After the election, I will continue to get angry and passionate about issues of injustice, but then, I will look for the spaces to work constructively with people to create a place where more people can flourish and reach their potential. Watch this space.