Yup, as a young woman, I am unable to say that I am pleased with the election results, and apparently with #NotMyPresident, I am not alone in this opinion. I have a slight worry of concern for my safety as a woman and a worry of I will not be treated like the human being that I am now that a man who has bragged about sexual assault is now president; however, I voted, the rest of the United States of America voted, and what happened happened, and there is really nothing that I can do about it. It is clear that with the crashing of the Canadian immigration website that plans to flee to Canada are becoming close to realistic. I will take no part in this. I am going to stay in the United States and let life go on.
Part of the main reasons why I cannot just flee to Canada is that I am physically unable too. I do not have a car, I am a college kid without money, and I go to school in Illinois and my passport is back home in New York. This makes a sudden exodus logistically impossible; however, even if I suddenly had a car, my passport, and a plane ticket, I still would stay planted in the United States because despite disappointment, despite a divided country, despite post-election chaos, despite uncertainty of what these next four years will hold, despite a new freedom to express decrepit hatred I will not give up into despair.
This election might be a low, but it is not the lowest that we have been. Although our country is rife with divisions, we at least still are one unified country and are not fighting a physical war with one another. We have already been there and done that, and yet we recovered. Prior to that war, the Supreme Court decided that a man was just property and denied any human rights because he was a slave and could not sue. Although racism is still alive and well in our country, the majority of us find the Dred Scott decision unthinkable. We recovered from that. We have recovered from losing generations of young men in the Civil War and both World Wars. We recovered from the Great Depression.
As a nation, we are resilient. We have our highs and we have our lows, but our American spirit has never been broken. This election is a wake up call to the disconnect between people and media. It is a wake up call to the misdirected resentment and frustration at one’s neighbor that should be directed at a broken system. As a people we have always made progress after a downturn. If history is doomed to forevermore repeat itself than let it. This means improvement for us.
This election may have already let the worst of people be shown, but there is no reason that the best of people cannot be shown as well. It is time for us to listen to one another and respond to hatred with love, open ears, and open minds. The night might be dark, but a dawn always awaits.
