I have no idea how to start writing this. It is currently 12:18 am on November 9, 2016 and Mr. Donald Trump is the President Elect of the United States with a republican controlled House of Representatives and the Senate. As I watched the election coverage for 8 hours today, I hoped with all my heart that our country would not promote and elect prejudism, racism, sexism, misogyny, xenophobia, but we did. I sat and watched the electoral college and the popular vote determine a man who has never hold political office worthy and deserving of becoming Commander in Chief, the Leader of the Free World, the President of the United states of America, my President.
I will easily admit that I am a registered Democrat and a young liberal woman, so yes I am biased (everyone is, let’s move on) and I’m now painfully aware that my nation doesn’t hold the same core ideals that I do. I cast my first ever vote for Secretary Hillary Clinton and I saw the candidate I support lose. I accept a democratic loss, I accept the laws of the United States and I accept the results of elections.
I will never accept the horrific, damaging, and inherently hateful rhetoric that the 45th President of the United States has spewed over the course of his life. I reject a reality in which so many people have been harassed, degraded and dehumanized because they don’t look like Mr. Trump. I believe in an America in which ‘all men are created equal’. I believe in a country that upholds its Constitution and protects the rights and safety of its citizens. I believe that my beautiful nation of opportunity and liberty was founded on visions of equality, safety, security and freedom. It is so easy to feel nothing but disappointment, anger, nausea, and hatred. I felt all of those things surge through me as tears poured down my face as I listened to Mr. Trump make his first speech as President Elect. However, those feelings feed into his divisive and threatening campaign. Please meet his hate with love. Spread hope, ambition, willingness, determination, empathy and passion.
America, you gave me my first broken heart tonight. I felt my chest tighten, my stomach clench, and my mind go numb. I lost my breath and shook with fear and I hurt at the thought of how many people, including myself, are so incredibly frightened by the sound of “President Donald Trump.” So to everyone who is scared, whether you are LGBTQ+, hispanic, latino, African-American, disabled, female, republican, democrat or absolutely anything else in between, I’m with you. I promise to do everything in my power to spread love through the hate, light through the dark. I stand proudly with every citizen of my country holding ideals of social mobility and equal opportunity.
It’s so incredibly difficult to express the distress and despair that begs me to spew negative and detrimental words against our new reality; But I know that I, and America, will rise. We will rise above racism, bigotry, sexism and hatred. America, you stand for liberty, freedom and equality. I stand with you, and I hope you stand with each other instead against each other.
