PDDS

POST DEBATE DISTRESS SYNDROME

Dear readers, three days have passed since last Thursday night’s debate, and I am trying my best to gather my thoughts and feelings about the event. Do I force my worries down my gullet and join the voices who say, “He had a bad night. That’s all.” Or do I lean in the direction of others who want to seek a different nominee?

Can I ignore the halting walk and speech, the garbled and sometimes incomprehensible sentences, the open-mouth stares that left me terribly concerned for POTUS’ physical and cognitive states? Or can I join the voices that insist Mr. Biden will remain our candidate? I’ve read that Mr. Biden’s refusal to step down will result in an ugly nominating convention, a debacle full of the ire and violence we watched during the last Democratic Convention held in Chicago. If we thought “the whole world [was] watching” then, imagine the millions of screens propped open now.

Last Thursday’s debate should be in my rearview mirror. I should be able to shake it loose just as easily as MAGA supporters absorb and repeat their Fuhrer’s lies. But how does that work? I’m left with many questions. For example, how can a woman have an abortion after the ninth month of pregnancy? Just asking for all women.

I’ve researched the term “Black jobs,” and I’ve come up empty. Try as I might, I couldn’t find that particular heading in the employment sections of Sunday’s New York Times and the Philadelphia Inquirer. I’ve reached the conclusion that “Black jobs” refers to: educators, clergy-people, physicians, allied-medical professionals, attorneys, judges, engineers of all types, astronauts, leaders of corporations, heads of boards of directors, technology developers, officers as well as enlisted members of the military, filmmakers, actors, professional musicians and composers, writers, artists, Supreme Court justices, and U.S. Presidents. The list is as long as our imaginations are limitless!

So, dearest readers, it comes to this. One segment of our citizenry will vote for a convicted felon whose election promises to end our democracy as we’ve known it. A different segment of our citizenry will ignore the troubling effects of aging we’ve witnessed in order to preserve our democracy. Is there a third segment of our population whose resources, skills, and political savvy will be put to work to convince Mr. Biden that his greatest and most patriotic gift to his nation would be to decline the nomination and support an alternative candidate?

Just asking for all of us who will suffer the consequences of trump’s second term. And that’s a heck of a lot of people, many of whom identify as trump supporters.

©Renée Bess 2024

Renée Bess writes fiction, creative non-fiction, and poetry. Her work has earned a Goldie Award from the Golden Crown Literary Society (2018) and an Alice B. Readers Award (2019.) Renée’s next novel, HER LAST SECRET, is scheduled to be published by Flashpoint Publications in October, 2024. Her website address is: http://www.reneebess.com