APW Happy Hour

Well maybe happy hour isn't the right title this week

Hey APW,

Maddie here, coming to you from our hotel in Lisbon, where we’ve been spending the week at Web Summit. It’s been intense to experience this week’s events from abroad. Unlike those of you in the U.S., we went to bed on Tuesday night feeling optimistic about what was ahead. I fell asleep shortly after midnight in Lisbon, when Hillary was leading Florida, and woke at five to the news that Trump was sweeping the election. I stared at the TV, and cried a combination of exhausted, hormonal, and horrified tears as it became increasingly clear that he was going to become our president. And then, because we weren’t quite sure what else to do… we went to work. We cried some more, and tried to listen to tech dudes talk, and took solace in the fact that there was a women’s lounge at the conference where we could hide for a little while.

But experiencing this week in Europe, and more specifically in Lisbon (where everyone has been the kindest human), was also strangely comforting. I expected the world to be like…”WTF did you do? You are monsters.” But instead we have been reassured by everyone we’ve seen so far that we are a good country, and we can pull out of this, and they are scared too…. but want to comfort us because we must be so much more scared. Which is nice to hear, especially when it’s hard to believe.

And even with that, I know my fears pale in comparison to so many around me. I have friends and loved ones whose terror is visceral, and who have felt an immediate threat in their communities in the wake of this election. I haven’t figured out what comes next, but for now we stand in solidarity with our immigrant, Muslim, Black, Brown, LGBTQ, Jewish, and disabled friends, their loved ones, and communities at large.

And with that, it’s happy hour. This week, let’s call it sorrow hour. Talk it out however you need to.

xo,

Maddie

link round-up

Want to do something? Donate to the Get Bullish “All-Out No-Bullshit Liberal AF Fundraiser.”

A bit of light: Ilhan Omar is the first Somali-American female legislator everrrr.

Here’s how you raise feminist kids.

How to remain positive post-election 2016 (if you want to. Anger is fine, too).

This petition that encourages “faithless electors” probably won’t work, but it might.

Joy’s House is the only shelter for women and children in Athens, Alabama, and it faces closure.

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