I am in pain. The country I was born and brought up in has revealed an ugly side that I knew was there but I did not fully realize the extent. The UK's decision to leave the EU has left me shocked and cut adrift. As horrifying as the rise of Trump has been in the US, I felt it wasn't my fight. If Trump got in we would leave, go back to Europe. I was stupid and naive. This kind of evil is everyone's problem and I am left questioning everyday what I can do to contribute, to stand up and say 'kindness matters, tolerance is essential and hatred must be diminished at every turn.'
We are in days of shadow and the history we thought we left behind seems doomed to repeat itself. I have cried for my loss of identity, the sense of betrayal, with sadness for my family in the UK with guilt for bringing my daughter into such a world and shame because I know my chest beating is a little self-indulgent - it's not as if I need to look over my shoulder because of the color of my skin or the number of consonants in my last name.
What I do know is that I refuse to be defined by the rules set up by other more privileged than myself and I cannot run and hide. To be alive is a political act.
