This past week has delivered a lot of newness to which we as Americans now have to adjust. Whether you celebrated or cried on election night the course of the country has changed and the way that I’m going to proceed from here will require me to trust and love more than I ever have before.

I won’t lie I am extremely displeased with the results of the General Election. I feel that many minorities have now been disadvantaged or are now threatened of being disadvantaged and as a progressive and as a liberal this reality is one of my worst nightmares. My initial instinct is to draw within myself and to run toward those who I know are safe and who share my opinions and disappointments. I think I will do that for a respite from the exhausting practice of fighting for my views, I mean no disrespect but I find it difficult to endure comfortably next to those who would compromise the rights of minorities, the fight for equality and the benefit of all Americans rather than a few. I am just sad that the so many Americans want to not only segregate us with divisive language and ideals but also want to drive certain groups out of the American experience altogether. If anyone should be driven from America it should be those who are proponents for driving people out for not conforming to the majorities standards. The divide I feel most strongly is the divide between those who want to build walls and those who want to tear them down. There is no real direction here but really people just stop doing this hateful prejudice stuff. I’m lucky to know people who are welcoming and truly abstain from prejudice. The people I hold in the highest esteem are the ones who look for ways to connect to others and who look for the goodness in every individual. Those people are the people that I need to surround myself with for the time being. Those kindred hearts that also prefer to look at the world with realistic optimism, I need them right now so very much.

Of course I cannot isolate myself completely, I have family members and neighbors and friends who voted in ways that will affect many Americans negatively. This does not affect the way I feel about them in most cases, I still love my family and I believe in showing everyone exactly the amount of goodness they deserve which is on average quite a bit. But for a moment I need to pause my efforts to appeal to them, I need to objectify the relationships and prepare to approach them again, I need to exist coldly and distantly from their politics and their opinions. I can love someone but disagree with everything that they believe in, but for a moment I need to exist a small distance further away from them. I’m angry, and sad and my heart mourns for the progress that will be lost in this president’s term, and quite frankly there is no one else to blame but the population that elected him.

If it is any consolation to those who believe that a shift has been made between those on one side of this election and those on the other, if it troubles anyone on the side of divisiveness that their friends and family members cannot agree with their divisiveness then know this: one half of the country, my half of the country, wants a bridges built and walls torn down between all groups in America, including yours. The fight for a more united America is not over, I don’t think it ever can be over, but the progress we make together is what defines us, the progress we lose is what confines us. Come next election hopefully we will all know better.