I guess Illinois is not the state in which to run for a Congressional office if you happen to be both BLACK and FEMALE. Never mind that Erika Harold is a graduate of Harvard School of Law. Both her intelligence and her accomplishments are apparently canceled out by her gender, her skin color and her stunning looks-- she is a former Miss America Beauty Queen. Jim Allen, The Illinois GOP Party leader wrote,
“Rodney Davis (her opponent) will win and the love child of the D.N.C. will be back in Shitcago by May of 2014 working for some law firm that needs to meet their quota for minority hires,” Allen wrote in the email. “ . . . Miss queen is being used like a street walker and her pimps are the DEMOCRAT PARTY and RINO REPUBLICANS.”
I think this successfully demonstrates why the GOP is not viewed as minority friendly, and while I am not a Republican, I find myself rooting for Ms. Harold.

On the home front, I think I am beginning to understand cranky old people. I went through life a Pollyanna. No matter what happened to me, I looked for the good in people and the beauty in the world around me. I could always smile and find a reason to be kind to others.

Something broke. These days, I feel angry and resentful. I resent how unfair life has been and feel that I deserve better than this. I deserve the love of family. I was never deliberately cruel or hurtful. I was never deliberately abusive. I tried to always show my children and family how much I loved them and cared about them. The bitter disappointment feels physical. It is like something sitting at the back of my throat that refuses to be swallowed away, and a tightness in my chest (and tears that well up involuntarily as I write this). Sometimes the anger explodes and I become short-tempered. More than at any other time in my life, I rail against social injustice. I am certainly a cranky old woman, and I don't like that I am. Please, let this pass soon.