Today I went to my first ever political rally, and it was not quite what I had expected. Donald Trump came to Rochester, New York today, the 10th of April of 2016. So I did what any liberal, angsty twenty-one year old girl might decide to do, and went to the rally to protest. I had my signs made and ready to go. One said “Make America Love Again,” and the other said “Love has no religion, ethnicity, economic status, gender.” Both signs also had written implications that voting for Trump was voting for hate, as my side of the protest was there to spread love and peace to the people… at least that’s what the people on my side claimed.
One of the first things I heard when I got there was that the Trump side told us to stop protesting and go get a job. Many on our side responded with signals of peace and love toward the Trump supporters. However, as more people came, the crowds on both sides of the street began to become verbally aggressive toward one another. More insults were thrown our way, but this time, people from our side threw insults back, swearing and making fun of the Trump ralliers. I was very sad to see this. As soon as we send insults back, we are no better than they are. We no longer have the right to criticize them for spreading hate, because we started doing the same thing.
Another thing that bothered me was when two young Trump supporters came to stand on our side. It wasn’t them standing with us that bothered me, it’s the way our people spoke to them that made me upset. People were implying that they would act out against these two young men, and made a scene asking the police to make them leave. All these individuals did was come to stand on our side. Sure, they wanted to provoke us, and to an extent it worked. But they were not inherently doing anything wrong.
Now, I am not writing this article to make the Trump protesters look like the bad guys. There was just as much hate and insult being spewed from the Trump supporters other side, and I’m sure there was plenty inside of the rally as well. But I expected that. I was very sad that many of these people who were supposed to be on my side were no better in my eyes than the men and women supporting Trump across the street. I went hoping to be empowered by the unity of like-minded people, people with similar goals and morals. However, as someone who was raised to be respectful, and who teaches my campers and students to be respectful, I was disappointed in a lot of what I saw and heard.
I think the thing that most people forgot was that once this rally was over, there was no longer a street between us. We all went off to our homes, to our work places, to our places of worship, to the grocery store… all of us went somewhere. And without the street between us, I bet people from both sides of the street came together for family dinners, for religious services, or to wait in the Burger King line for dinner. I know I used a lot of “us” and “them” while writing this, but with all of the shirts covered and signs put away, who is who?We are all Americans. We are all human beings. We all have our own ideas and beliefs, and reasons we think our perspective is the right one. I don’t agree with what Donald Trump is trying to do to my country, your country, the country of my generation and the next. What I do believe, though, is that all of us could use a little bit more time to reflect on what peace and love really mean this election season.
