I now know what it's like to get a cancer diagnosis.

The bottom drops out of your world.  You're stunned and numb.  You're horrifically frightened.  You can't think straight. You wonder if there's anything you can do.  Physically, you feel like you've been beaten with a stick. Nothing matters any longer.  Everything is on the line.

America just got a cancer diagnosis.  So did the entire world.

Donald Trump was elected President.

Until last night I had hope for this country.  I thought for sure, that like an airplane in a nosedive, we'd pull up at the last minute.

We didn't.

I honestly thought we were better than this.

The cancer of fear, ignorance, xenophobia, bigotry, lies, bullying, hateful nationalism and racism exploded across the United States like a red wave.  Where once I had hope for this nation that surely we'd defeat the demagogue, it slipped away with every announced result.

Repression, regression and suspicion are part of this cancer, too.  Right-wing Christianity has gotten its foot in the door, as have the racist hate groups.  Our Vice President-Elect, Mike Pence, is a fanatical anti-gay, anti-abortion Christian conservative and Tea Party supporter.  Republicans won the House and the Senate.  I fear that we'll see the demolition of all the progress we've made in a women's right to choose, marriage equality, rights and advancements for people of color, immigrants, the environment and climate change, worker rights, consumer protections, healthcare - the list goes on and on.

The only hope that I have at the moment is that some sort of sanity remains in the halls of our government.  Hopefully the checks and balances put in place by our Founding Fathers hold sway against the desires and actions of this mentally and emotionally unstable man, this political ignoramus, this cancer, and his cronies.

Like all diagnosed with cancer, I hope there is some treatment, any treatment, that works.