Dear Americans,
These passed few months have been rough. Whether you are Christian, Muslim, white, black, middle eastern, male, female, heterosexual, a member of the LGBTQ community...whether you are financially stable, or financially struggling, conservative or liberal, chances are...you've at some point, felt victimized, targeted, and demonized by someone on a different social sphere of life, a news channel, a social media post.
When we as humans get hurt, we get scared. When we get scared, we hurt back.
Like a wounded animal, we back into our burrowed holes, our comfort zones, and we hiss and we attack and we scare so that we don't have to feel hurt or compromised anymore.
Dear Sweet Americans,
Dear Friends,
Dear Brothers and Sisters,
Wake up.
No matter who the president is, no matter how scared we feel, no matter how hurt we have been in the past, this does not give us the right to attack and demonize, beat and belittle other American citizens.
There is ONE president. There are 308,745,538 of us. We are the voice of what our country looks like, and whether we are man or woman, gay or straight, conservative or liberal...we have the ability to be kind, do good things, and treat other individuals with dignity and respect. Even those who differ from us.
Dear Americans,
The world is never going to know what you love by who you slander on social media.
Any wall that goes up will prevent us from loving deeper, from loving in and out and over.
The world is never going to see how strong and sovereign your heart is by the buildings you burn down.
The world is never going to know your God by the stores and corporations that you boycott.
Dear Americans,
Making you a pro-life woman does not make you any less of a woman. It does not make you any less of a strong "woman-for-women" woman.
Making you pro-choice does not make you a wench with a heart of stone. It does not mean that you hate the aspect of family, and that you are incapable of feeling love and tenderness, and compassion.
Dear Americans,
Shaming a person as faith and chalking them off as stupid will not exemplify your opinion any louder, it will not heighten your IQ. It will, however, deprive you of a chance to try to understand a different perspective.
Dear Americans,
Condemning a nonreligious person, a person with a different lifestyle, a broken person, to hell, will not lead them to the love of God, or the love of anything for that matter.
Dear Americans,
Not every issue is about the color of one's skin, not every issue is a racial-rooted issue.
Dear Americans,
Sometimes, it absolutely is a racially rooted issue, and it is no one's place to deny that on a systematic level. It is our duty as Americans, in that moment, to hold these people in our hands and fill them with love, assure them of their dignity, and walk next to them as brothers and sisters, as humans.
Dear Americans,
There are great individuals in Law Enforcement, and they aim to protect their community, to grow their community, and to help fight the fight when the fight for an everyday citizen is too big. They need to be thanked.
Dear Americans,
There are bad people in every career, and there is no excuse for actions, ever, that were used to unwarrantedly compromise the life of another human being. In these cases, there must be accountability.
Dear Americans,
Respect our troops. They are leaving their wives, husbands, babies, they are leaving their lives behind in order to make sure that you can live in peace, unafraid. No matter what your political affiliation is, no matter how ugly and heartbreaking war is, no matter how disdained you are with the government, our troops are offering themselves up as a sacrifice for you. Our troops are not the President. Our troops are not the government. Our troops are Americans. They are not even the face of a military machine. They are people. Hate war, but respect the troops.
Dear Americans,
Feel free to disagree with war. Feel free to shout it, advocate for it, research and write and speak about diplomacy. Decide to change the world. Stand for peace. Stand for each other. Just do it respectfully.
Dear Americans,
Fighting perceived violence with stronger violence will never equal peace.
Dear Americans,
Do not associate someone speaking their opinions out, advocating for their voice, and exercising their right to dissent, to speak, to their freedoms, as hatred for their country. America is their home, and they are trying to live in their home.
Dear Americans,
Let people love who they want to love. And love them strongly regardless.
Dear Americans,
Don't ever assume that someone is stupid.
Be tolerant.
Don't ever act as if one life isn't important.
Don't ever let our children believe that there is a cap to their potential; that one is worth more than the other.
Don't withdraw your heart because you are afraid of getting hurt; eject it, let it break open and break for people, learn to genuinely love everyone who breathes. After all, they get to choose who they want to be; we, however, get to choose if we love. Loving others is none of their business. Loving our counterparts is a choice that we choose, every day.
Dear Americans,
In the midsts of the turmoil and the grime and the hurt and the grit and the fear and the judgment, LOVE.
In the midsts of the support and the dissent and the accusations, LOVE.
In the midst of diversity, LOVE.
In the midst of each other, LOVE.
Dear Americans, be Americans, and stand for the beauty that American embodies.
Dear Americans, embody the American beauty of universal freedom, universal hope, and make yourself a vessel for those places to live.
Dear Americans,
Love your fellow Americans, and love your fellow World.
