Wednesday, November 9, 2016

Day After 2016 Election Results

I’m in shock. I can’t believe it really happened. Our country just told every woman, child, minority, non-Christian and LGBTQ that they don’t matter. I’m embarrassed. I’m scared. But mostly, I’m sorry. I’m sorry for the children who have been shown that bullying and racism is OK. I’m sorry for the women who have fought so hard for equality just to be told we can be groped and treated like objects and it’s OK. I’m sorry for the hard-working immigrants who have sacrificed everything to come here to escape the persecution and poverty in their native countries and provide a better life for their children who will now no longer feel safe in their own home here in America, as Americans. I’m sorry for the majority of Muslims who are not terrorists who are now going to be treated as if they are. I’m sorry for the LGBTQ community who now feel that they have to worry about the rights that they’ve fought so hard for might be taken away.

Election night: I was unwinding after a day of work, watching Netflix with my husband when I decided to check and see how the election was going. I opened the tab and saw the first results. Clinton was behind. What?!? How was this happening? I honestly was not prepared for this. Through this whole circus, I never really believed that Clinton would lose. I still had faith that our country would do what was right and fair. I checked the results a couple times throughout the night. I started to get physically sick to my stomach as it was becoming clear that this nightmare was becoming reality. I had to put it aside for the night. I needed one more night of not believing this man was going to become president.

Come morning, my husband wakes up before I do and I ask him how he is. He says, “I’ve been better. We have an orange president.” I had really hoped I was going to wake up to find it was a bad dream. Nope. This is life now. I then checked online and saw that the GOP also took the House and the Senate. God, how did you let this happen? And so many people did this in Your name. I’m sorry for you as well.

I feel as a country we just took a huge step backwards. David Duke supports this guy for fuck’s sake. We now have a KKK supported president! How? Why? When did everyone fall asleep and let this happen? And I’m not exactly a Hillary supporter either, I was for Bernie, but I would have welcomed Hillary with open arms over what we ended up with. Bernie supporters had pro-Bernie stickers on their cars; Hillary supporters had pro-Hillary stickers on their cars; Trump supporters? Well, they had pro-Trump stickers, yes, but they also had anti-Hillary and anti-a-bunch-of-other stuff on their cars, or rather on their gas-guzzling, dually trucks that tow nothing in suburban Southern California. I try to live by the “promote what you love, don’t bash what you hate” way of life. All I’ve heard coming out of the Trump side is hate. I don’t know anything that this man likes, but I sure know everything he hates. And do you know what hate breeds? Even more hate.

I saw a tweet today that hit home. When I got dressed this morning, I put on all black. Granted, I work in an office and a lot of my clothes are black, but today, I consciously decided to wear all black. Then I saw this tweet:
“Despair opens the door for evil. Now is the time to double down on your beliefs. Together we will find a way. I believe in us.” - @zoeinthecities 
Thank you Zoe. I needed that. She is absolutely right. “Darkness cannot dive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.” Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

I don’t want to be one of the people that I have been so upset with for the past eight years. I will not say, “Thanks, Trump” for everything that goes wrong. I will maintain my beliefs and I will work even harder to make the people I come in contact with know that they matter. Maybe this will be a blessing. Maybe this is what we need to form together even closer to love and drive out this hate. We can’t let this break us. We need each other.

Please love each other. Even more.
karendipity