This Shoe Doesn't Fit

“Like the shoes, it’s just not comfortable. It’s way too tight.”

“I’m a Trump supporter. I think we need to give him some time and a chance. But I can’t tolerate his stance on immigration. This country was founded on immigrants.”

“Planned Parenthood saved my girlfriends life. She could have possibly lost her life if she carried through with the pregnancy that we had lost. Some pretty serious things to think about and consider. We rely on human resources that are allowed or supported by people in our society and by government.”

“By far the hardest so far has been experiencing the re-traumatizing effect on my clients & friends, especially the marginalized, ethnically and financially diverse ones.”

“I’m a white mother of a brown-skinned child. I know it’s common for children to recognize when there’s tension in the air, and they worry. So today I worry for them. I worry about the lack of minority leadership; a decision that appears purposeful. I worry because I wonder if we as parents and teachers will ever be able to do enough to offset this damaging approach to government. I worry because I am also terrified of anything the KKK supports. Its heart wrenching to explain to my son how all this is allowed to happen in his world.”

“I think what is most upsetting is “the new patriotism equals prejudice.  My feelings over the past 8 years were that things were moving in a direction where there was more openness and acceptance in this country so this rubber band snap going backwards is very upsetting. My concern is how irreparable the damage can be, how far does it go before it’s unfixable? We have a lot of terrified people who were in a state of disbelief over what could be taken away.”

“What I do not like about this administration is the lack of understanding and attempt to include others that have different opinions. We were told that this administration is going to bring Americans together when my opinion is that it has divided us more than we've been divided in years.”

“Everything concerns me. Section 8, healthcare, LGBT rights and minorities.”

“We want a safe, healthy world for our kids. You can’t have a self-sufficient individual without education. We just had a daughter and we can’t imagine anyone looking at her and telling her she can’t do anything. And we want her to see everything.  We want her to see how beautiful the world is and with the environmental issues, we are afraid there won’t be anything left of it.”

“I’m a black, Mexican, Navajo, Jewish woman from New York City. Coming from that bubble of diversity and not realizing that there is a lot hate to be afraid of…  I just feel like this election has spurred a coming out of the closet of being able to hate in public and it’s scary. I see this guy as a rapist, and as a survivor, it’s a slap in the face that somebody who is so obviously a predator is in the highest position of power. It’s as if you can just go around acting however way you want and treating women however you want; like they are worthless and still be in that position – it’s painful.”

“I’m from Guangzhaou China. My parents adopted me in 2011 on Valentine’s Day. People like me are coming into the states, there’s also lots of Mexicans coming to the states (Stacie: Because this is a country built on idea of all kinds of cultures.) – Yeah, anyone can come here and live their dreams. But then Trump comes in and Trump’s trying to stop those dreams. He just wants only white people to stay here because he thinks only white people are perfect.  Most people are not that; most people are nice.”

“I don’t understand the hatefulness towards the Muslims and immigrants. They are destroying this country brick by brick. But my biggest concern is Iran or Korea launching a nuclear attack in retribution and starting World War Three.”

“Gay marriage was approved on my birthday and it was the best birthday present ever! With this administration, I’m paying full attention for the first time because I’m taking a stand for myself.”

Noah: “Why does he want to build a wall only to keep out immigrants? The reason why he wants to do it is because he wants our country to have no people who aren’t Americans. My teacher told me that it doesn’t matter if you’re a real American or not, you can be in this country. I’m black. A lot of black people are born in this country. I think Donald Trump doesn’t seem like he wants any black people – he doesn’t respect blacks.”

“The crux of all of this is that this is the first time we’ve had to dig down deep and figure out what you as an individual stand for and it has been polarizing. We got there out of complacency but we’ve dug down and pulled out the good. The minorities and the discriminated against have come out and really supported each other in a really deep way and it is beautiful.”

“I feel so strongly about refugees and other minorities. Their choices are being ignored or taken away and they are scared to death.”

Aaron: “As a conservative with a blended family he is just pandering to conservatism. His words are hollow and full of half truths.”

“I don’t like the level of fear and uncertainty of what I’ll see when I wake up. I’m concerned about the environmental aspects of having someone in charge who wants to abolish it.”

Jolyn: “I work with renewable energy and energy efficiency for the Federal Government so it’s really, really scary to me to see what’s happening. My whole life’s passion has been about how can we improve what we are doing in terms of energy for so many reasons. It’s all about immediate greed, short-term gain and making lots of money without looking forward at all and caring in any minutia about the rest of humanity at all.”

“I think of myself as the pinnacle of success. I own my house & my car and I’m raising my son to want for nothing. But if they take away my health care I might as well be living in a third world country.”

Nancy:  “From a personal perspective, having all the same rights and benefits that heterosexual people had for so long is just incredible. We always said the paper isn’t going to make that big of a difference but now having it and worrying about it being taken away and not even knowing all of the ways that will impact us.”

“They don’t want us here; the queers, the artists, the scientists and environmentalists. My people! It’s like an assault on my existence.”

Laurie: “There is nothing about this administration that fits my life. Not my work, health, beliefs or soul. It doesn’t help the people I serve. It doesn’t get them off the streets or even into a tent. Not one part of it fits the average American; and then if you add in something different…”

“My biggest concern is being an immigrant and having a scarf to wear every time I go outside. All of the sudden everybody looks at me different even though I’ve been here 16 years. My niece is 5 years old and needed to pee so I stopped at a restaurant. The lady said no, “This isn’t a public bathroom, don’t use it again”. Then she said, “Trumps gonna kick your ass”. She said it in front of the kid. - I can’t assume that because some men cheat that they are all bad. Same thing with Muslims, same thing with Americans, same thing with everybody.”

“This entire administration is about as useless as these shoes.”

“Trump said he wasn’t LGBT during his campaign but to me he has proven otherwise. I worked for the Department of Agriculture and did my transition gradually. They had me using a male bathroom at first. Later on they had me using a bathroom down in the basement. Part of the reason I retired is I felt the work environment became so unfriendly that I resigned and it resulted in a suicide attempt.  It was so heartbreaking to be without my job.  I loved my job, it was the best job I had in my life. My advice as an adult trans to kids is to get your parents involved to fight for your rights and try to keep your head held high.”

“The administration fits my life the least because it’s currently made up of bajillionaires who’ve never attended public school and don’t have any idea what it’s like to go home hungry every day. They don’t get that those kids only get those meals at school. They don’t understand that children take a backpack of food home and they don’t know that even in the current “IT” city of the United States – 70% of our kids live in poverty.”

Mark:  “it’s disappointing. It goes against everything you want to believe that people would treat each other with such disdain and lack of empathy and not be able to come together on issues that are common to all of us. If we are going to have border security, how do we do that? We can’t just keep everyone out that’s a ridiculous concept and why would you want to?”

Lauren: “As a new mother, bringing her into this world I don’t want her to see people treating each other that way. I’m sorry I thought we would be further along than we are by this point.”

Jack: “He wants to build the Great Wall of America. He doesn’t want Mexicans to be here, but I like them. Especially the ones that work at Las Maracas.”

“I’m a middle class white male and everything in this administration could directly benefit me but I also see the drastic detriment that income inequality has between people in power and people in need and this is growing further apart. The most powerful thing we can do is talk with people that don’t feel the way we do. Whatever we can do to mobilize people to have meaningful, civil conversations… I’ll do whatever I can do to make sure I’m having those conversations and help others do the same.”

Cassie: “I’m concerned about the selection of Mike Pence, who believes kids should be electro shocked into not being gay and Steve Bannon… considering my wife is half Jewish.”

“The concept of party over democracy makes me angry because they aren’t taking into account the people they hurt. All they care about is pushing their agenda.”

“The concern most ripe for me regarding this administration is mental health issues. Not just because of my personal struggles with mental illness, but I see the struggle in people all around me. Everyone I know is starting to take, or upping their dose of anti-depressants, and increasing the frequency of their therapy visits. This kind of subtle, manipulative, covert abuse is so insidious most people don’t even know that it’s happening. But the abuse is real. For those of us who have lived our entire lives on the edge of that thresh-hold, this national scale of abuse is having a crippling, debilitating, and paralyzing effect on every aspect of our lives.”

“My parents were the first interracial marriage in Tennessee in 1975. I thought that as I grew older that things would change. I got to see marijuana start to be legalized and interracial marriages legalized and gay marriages legalized and all that stuff but you know, having Trump put into the house it just feels like my place has been taken away.”

“I feel this administration has little regard for the equal rights of women, minorities, immigrants, and the LGBT community. I have family members who fall in all four of those categories, and their well-being is important to me.”

“They are lousy songwriters.”

“It’s the first time in my life that I have been aware of my white privilege. Really all my privilege. I can drive in my car and not worry about getting pulled over for my skin color. I can stop anywhere and use the bathroom on the highway. My transgender friend doesn’t have the same liberty.”

“I was born here, but my parents migrated to the US at the height of when the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan. Everyone had to leave and my parents came here. It feels like I’m in this battle I have to fight every single minute of every day and I can’t do anything else until this is over with. It’s scary. This is my home and my country but it’s unrequited love. I have so much love for this place but I feel like it has no love for me. God forbid, if something does happen… if he takes this executive order one more step, and another step and it gets scarier and scarier and we go into an internment camp like the Japanese after WW2 – what happens then?”

Sarah: “I remember thinking the people who did this (9/11) think that we hate them. I’ve always felt like we don’t hate Muslims. We are an incredible country that celebrates diversity! But when Trump emerged, I thought. “Oh God! This is confirming every terrorists belief that we ARE like that. It’s dangerous.”

“I grew up in a home where I was taught that you can be anything that you want to be. My mother was an educator and I watched her support so many people coming up regardless of what color or religion they were or where they were from. She taught them all the same. This administration stands to erase everything that my mom made me believe. Every generation before us did the heavy lifting so that it was literally mine to take. And now that someone is trying to take it, it is completely different situation and it’s disrespectful to all the generations above me and everyone who came before me and everyone who didn’t have the rights that I do.”

“One administration can recover from most anything from the previous; taxes, insurance, immigration, but what we can’t recover from is what they are doing to the environment. This is un-fixable. I feel like his supporters are the stepsisters from the original Grimm’s fairy tale of Cinderella. One cut off her toe and one cut off her heel just to fit in the shoe. They all think they are just a toe away but it just doesn’t fit.”

“I’m an optimist so the good thing is that people are making change. It has to hurt in order to grow and that’s ok. I just feel sad for anyone hurt in the process. My kid is 14 and if keeps going like it is, he might get called to the draft and have to do something he doesn’t want to do.”

“This administration is in direct opposition to what I as a child of the 50’s and 60’s was taught was great about America which is equality under the law. The republicans used to be a party that was reasonable but have become racist and misogynistic, unlike the republicans like my parents and their friends.”

SHOE GIVER - "If anyone could make lemonade out of Trumpy lemons, it’s this girl.  I’m so proud of her, and honored to have been even a small part of what she’s accomplishing with this series."