The Grouchy Old White Lady has been out and about, talking to the young. There was the cute gay guy who may be 30 and wears a ton of Maybelline who told me that people did not like Kamala because she said Trump was Hitler. I do not recall her making this particular comment though I do remember Mr Vance said something similar before he was tapped to be the vice president. I am not sure where my confidant read this. Was it on X? The same person also said that Japan had banned COVID vaccines as dangerous (fake news). Then there was the young waitress and mom on the verge of tears, worrying about bringing up her son under an authoritarian and corrupt regime who, when she found that we felt similarly, brought us free food and commented that it was good to meet older people who are not Trump voters (!). There were the girls at the salon who were worrying about the economy and wondering if they will ever be able to move out of their parents' houses. They do not buy the improvements Trump has promised. They are also feeling more alienated from men generally except maybe their boyfriends and sometimes their dads. There were the students who were weeping during Kamala's concession speech and worrying about traveling to any red state, esp if that red state is home. There are some young people who are ignoring politics entirely for their sanity, they said. Maybe this is the correct position. Maybe not. In any case, I encountered no Trump voters among the kids I spoke to (by kids, I mean those under 40!) but then we are in a blue state which is apparently a kind of bubble. We may be OK here even with the markets going haywire and the cessation of vaccines and the other horrors that are apparently in store -- or not. Young women are still working and having children. Young women are the largest percentage of students at colleges and universities. Young people are still pursuing their dreams. I am proud of so many of them, and this lifts me up. Maybe Anne Frank was right -- that people are essentially good: "in spite of everything, I still believe people are good at heart." She was young, too, poor girl, when she wrote that and optimistic -- but optimism may be one way through.