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This story first appeared on chatelaine.com
Around one in the morning, before the U.S. election had been called, but when the math was clearly adding up to a Donald Trump victory, Van Jones, the usually unflappable CNN commentator, was visibly shaken. ?It?s hard to be a parent tonight for a lot of us,? he said. ?You tell your kids don?t be a bully, don?t be a bigot, do your homework and be prepared.? He paused. ?You have people putting their children to bed tonight and they?re afraid of breakfast. How do I explain this to my children"?
This question was on many parents? minds. A little earlier, Jessica Lustig, an editor at the New York Times Magazine had tweeted: ?Sent 13-yr-old to bed wearing ?the future is female? T-shirt and tears in her eyes. Don?t know what to tell her about our country in the AM.? What can we say" I also sent my 13-year-old to bed last night, worried about the results. Yesterday afternoon, when he?d asked me what would happen to Canada if Trump won, I was feeling confident about Hillary Clinton. My news feeds had been full of giddy American voters in pantsuits and ?I?m With Her? T-shirts. Every poll indicated a Clinton victory. I promised my kid everything was going to be fine.
For Canadians, a lot will remain fine: It?s not our Supreme Court that will be reconstituted, it?s not our civil liberties that will be bulldozed, it?s not our healthcare and education systems that will be ravaged. But we won?t be fully spared. Amer...