I sit at my desk reading the news and wondering where everyone has placed their minds. I look at friends turning on each other over differing points of view that just yesterday would have been ignored. I find myself scared by the unknown for the first time in history. I look at social media, and I see the waves of decent flowing freely. Families are tearing at the seems and friends are turning their backs on each other by just click a button. People that normally are strong law abiding individuals are rallying together to cause destruction and conflict.
It makes me think back to a class I paid attention to because of the teacher who taught it. A woman teaching me World History at Buffalo Grove High School in the 1990's, Ms. Wilson. She was a love black woman who wanted to bring everyone together by teaching how being separated allow the darkness to get into our lives. If she was to read this today she would probably not realize what she was saying. She treated everyone like a star in the class room, and her lessons did not fall on deaf ears, at least we me.
I look at the radically changing world today. I am scared that I don't know what is going to happen tomorrow or the next day. Will violence I am reading about in Europe, the Southern US, or Middle East find its way to my door step because I am different from those around me. What most people don't realize is that we are all different. We all have different races, cultures, and beliefs. These differences are not something we chose but were breed into us by genetics or the culture that we love.
Tonight, I got involved in an online dispute to support my cousin who is scared for her son. He looks different that she is because his father was not born in the U.S. I felt bad for her as she argued with her aunt about her beliefs in need to protect her family. So I stood up and shared how I was scared of ending up in a concentration camp being forced to go through a therapy that someone thought I needed because I am gay. Yes, I am gay, and I am proud. I look across the table and see my fiance and wonder if we will still be allowed to get married. If one of us gets sick will we be allowed to stand at each other's bed side and make the hard choices, or will they be left to someone else because we are thought of as less. I wonder about this a lot since the election as been about more than the good of the government, it has been about the good of the people in the nation.
From reading this you may think I stand as a Hilary Supporter. I want you to understand I felt that while standing in the voting booth I was choosing between two devils. The question I had was who was going to hurt the ones I love more. I chose to vote for the first time in my life to protect those around me. My vote did not make a difference since I am just once person in a state I knew would go to Hillary. As long as Electoral College votes stand that is how it will be in the U.S. while the old guard holds on to power. Someday a change will come and sweep the nation. I just wonder if I will be hear to see it.
A close friend of mine lost family in the Holocaust. I wonder if the U.S. will be the next grounds of a World War where we lose so many good people. No, I do not think Trump will cause this. I think he is just the right figure head to move it to the front of the stage. Hate has always been in this country. From the destruction of the Native Americans, to the slavery and repression of the African American, the Asian Interment Camps, to now the the discrimination of the Homosexuals and Muslims that live within the boarders of our nation.. The sad part is not one of these groups has rebounded to being completely equal in every respect. What will cause the sweeping change the breaks this cycle in this country. What will be the reason that we lose millions of people only to be left broke and forced to rebuild?
The amazing thing is, we don't have to be in that situation. We can unite and put a stop to it all. We can stand arm in arm and tell those that believe they have the power that it is wrong. How do we tell them? Well we start at the very thing that puts all people in power, we stop listening. Then we take away the method they use to fuel them, the money. Finally, we band together and find those that will listen to us and make them stop. If they will not listen we make them by sharing our thoughts and screaming into the void until someone hears us.
So I challenge all of you. If you hear hate, discrimination, or violence you take the power away. You stop watching that channel. You stop buying that product, You stop giving them what they need to fuel what they want. You take your power back and let them through your actions that it is not acceptable. And most important of all you vote every chance you get. Vote for what you believe in. Do not vote for the party because you like its ideas, you vote for the person and how they will represent you. If they are not voting the way you like, give you vote to someone else. If they are getting sponsored by corporations, people, or groups that do not support your beliefs, give you vote to the person that will. About 45% (depending on the new source) of people that are able to vote choice to be silent. If each of those people stood up and voted for the person they believe in - even if it was by write in - then we would have a different turn out in the world. The power would shift to those who remained silent. Never be silent. Never let someone take your voice. Even if you have to cross an ocean to be heard, to find your safe place, always be heard by checking the box you believe in the most.
