I’m sitting here at the end of the day. Watching the dusk advance. It’s beautiful. There’s a song playing and she’s saying something about “it’s breaking my heart.”

Which is a little how I feel after looking at the news. The right is rejoicing. The left is screaming. Coarseness and obscenity across the board. Anger abounding. Don’t even tell me that one side is pure and the other is at fault. I know too much history.

Promises and violence. Excuses and blame. This is the stuff of tragedy. I remember marching against the war in San Francisco in 1970. There were hundreds of thousands as we took to the streets. People filling all of the spaces as we marched to Kezar Stadium on Moratorium Day. We knew that there were similar marches in major cities. I was young and idealistic.

Still, I bridled at the Viet Cong flags that flew, even as Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young sang from the distant stage. I was in the 10^th grade.

Whatever your political beliefs, we’ve elected a showman. A provocateur. A narcissist not unlike his predecessor, only more coarse. He shouts in an anger that resonates with so many millions of people who have felt completely left on the sidelines. Good people, most of them. Don’t call them deplorables. You haven’t sat down with them. They’ve rallied around someone because they are desperate and it’s a mistake to dismiss them.

I did not vote and couldn’t vote for the first time since I was 18 and in very first group of voters empowered by the brand new 26^th Amendment to the Constitution, passed six months before my birthday. I’ve faithfully voted for President in every election since then, even though I’ve lost a few. Not this time. That was a hard decision for me.

So, we are left with shouts. Donald Trump, our newly minted president, successor to Washington and Lincoln. Real estate developer and reality showman. Unafraid at presenting himself as a man largely devoid of principle. Oh, and on the other side, we have the cultural elite, self-important well beyond their true value. Really? Madonna, Shia La Beaouf, Charlie Sheen bathed in vulgarity as they are. The strident voices of attention-grabbing Al Sharpton or Michael Moore, all having the gall to criticize Trump as millions cheer them on? Trotted out by the left as exemplars? This is who we are?

The shouting dins my ears. Where is the softness? The humility? Friends de-friend friends in the frenzy.

We reap what we sow. Don’t for a second think any of us is immune from that fact. We give allegiance to the gods of Hollywood or Washington or worldly ideologies and expect salvation. Stop it.

I have spent most of my life immersed in the political. It is very hard now. We are called to be in this world and to do our best. I am not an escapist and will participate in doing what I believe is right. But, tonight I feel enough is enough. I’m just sad.

Thankfully, there is another way.