It's no secret that this upcoming election has been one of the most widely dramatized elections of our generation. Social media and the media itself has taken every negative aspect of each candidate and ran with it in every direction. It's also no secret that the majority of negative flack the candidates receive isn't entirely untrue and even the little truths could be detrimental to our country as a whole. Personally, I've never been so afraid of the outcome of an election. However, I have started to wonder if the reasoning behind the fear is a mixture of two simultaneous issues. Those being that not only am I now old enough to understand and care, but social media is powerful enough to sway facts and the mix truly screws with my psychology. It really does take extra time and research to talk myself down from the freak-out.
I do know that my fear takes root in realistic concerns. We hold our country to higher standards than we allow it to provide, and we need to do better than that. We need to preserve humanity and the things that sustain it. We need to care about people outside of our parties' perverse opinions because we're not simply our parties. The ultra binary system of our government has been around since the election of 1796, but the problem that we should recognize is that we are not just binary people. We are not "just" anything. Humans have never been only one way or the other; we are capable of so much more than that. Our government may be systematic and have the disposable ability to be rebuilt after four years of "the wrong choice," but humanity simply cannot be. A society built on human rights and economical dreams shouldn't allow a political stance that views people as disposable to hold any weight.
Let's be reasonable though. At no point will we all be satisfied with our government, elected officials or the laws they put into place, assuming that they make it far enough fast enough to make actual changes.Thus begins the war. As this election has sprouted a war of hypersensitivity and hardheadedness, we focus so much on the negative information we can get a grip on. We focus on the negative things we can say about candidates and their supporters that will get our point across, but that aren't loving or out of genuine care at all.
Our religion only sometimes takes the forefront of our arguments and more frequently doesn't affect what we believe to be true about our government and our people. I believe in the separation of church and state wholeheartedly, but we shouldn't separate ourselves from the church in how we react to election years.
Instead of protesting, we should be praying
I heard a story once of Mahatma Gandhi and his summit meetings with other world leaders like Joseph Stalin and Franklin Roosevelt, where he would seat himself right next to Winston Churchill. What's incredibly interesting about this interaction is that Gandhi had a known aversion to smoke and the smell of cigars, but he sat there next to Churchill and personally lit his cigars for him. What kind of world would we live in if loving better and doing more was how we reacted to distaste? We don't have to light others' cigars but instead of protesting, we should be the change. I'm going to be honest and say that I hate that cliché and myself for using it but when it comes to protesting, it's so much more important.
When the #OscarsSoWhite events happened this year, Kerry Washington said it best. Full of grace in the midst of multiple protests against the dominantly white Academy she said, "A lot of people have asked my why I'm here tonight. And the thing I've been thinking about is that if you look at the history of movements, the history of change, a lot of voices are needed at the table ... I felt like my voice and my heart is best used at the table."
She wants to be someone who makes a difference in the Academy; working through love and pushing for justice. Religion doesn't have to be part of our government. I don't think I truly want to see the Ten Commandments at the capitol. That being said, responding with faith in the Lord's perfect plan, loving and walking in that should be our go-to.
Protesting won't change anything without a voice being heard, and voices won't be heard when everyone yells about their distaste at once.
