There is a divide so deeply cut in this nation that I refuse to sit silently about it anymore. It is festering and infected with fear and pain and we are now faced with what could be a complete revision of our democracy. We can no longer ignore what is going on.
Donald Trump you are now going to be the 45th President of the United States. And while those who sit in Congress may be the ultimate decision-makers, your part to play will affect this country and all its people for maybe the rest of their lives.
Over-exaggerated shouts of "I'm moving to Canada" or "All aboard the Trump Train!" fill the air. One of my professors, who is a pacifist and identifies in the LGBTQ community, is forcibly locking himself in his home in the days after and will buy his first firearm to protect himself. People are afraid to wear symbols of their cultural identity or step outside and present themselves as they truly are. This is what has been sown in our nation.
Mr. Trump, you have a responsibility now. A responsibility that I don't think you fully understand. The week after your victory is a cheerful one of course, but where do you see this country and the progress you have made a year from now? Where do you think we will be? Will you protect the rights of every single citizen that it wholly applies to? Will you answer genuinely to the mistakes you have made or truly understand the animosity that lies within our great nation?
These are the questions that billions of people around the world are asking. If there is one thing I know from being a writer and a grown adult now is that people never forget words, Mr. Trump. No matter what you do, no matter how much you "Make America great again", people will never forget your words. They will never forget the slandering, the ill-received jokes, the lies you may have spread. Your words were already being monitored by the nation they day you announced your Presidential run and they will be monitored ten fold now that you have won. As President, understand that even though you did not create this hatred, you have ignited it.
Now is the time to ask what we truly want our future to look like. In a world that has lost its compassion for our fellow man, we must now see deeply inside to determine the world we want to live in. For the sake of the living, for the sake of those who have yet to live, for the sake of those who are afraid to live, we must look within.
