For some, a feeling of imminent danger lingers in the air. On Wednesday morning, a blanket of confusion covered our nation. A feeling of uncertainty made us queasy. See, all my life I've never been the slightest bit interested in political affairs. I guess I thought it would never have quite an impact. But Tuesday night, I stayed up until 4 AM to find out who our next elected president was, despite having to wake up at 7 AM the next morning. After my 8 AM, I sulked back to my room in a daze. I am still in utter disbelief at how this entire thing played out.
In just a matter of days, outrage and violence broke out across the nation, and the internet made it possible for us to see how other parts of the country reacted. My first year of college is a major deal as it is, but this specifically just made things so much more stressful. I'm seeing a mixture of sadness and jokes: "I'm leaving US!" "I'm buying my plane tickets to Canada," and, "At least question 4 was approved!" It's quite difficult, living in Boston, to understand why some citizens made the choices they did. But in other parts of the country, that is the decision they made. We must seek to understand why they did so. They may have their own reasons for it. Still, though, it is more difficult for us to accept that decision and swallow that lump in our throats and move on. Moving on is really the only choice we have in life. How do we approach this? This question has been haunting us the entire week, and will continue to do so until we establish a game plan.
In the dining halls, throughout lecture classes, in my own street, the election has seized all of our discussions. Do we fight back through peaceful protest and discussion? Or shall we have patience and trust that years of progress will not be set back? I get that people cope with grief in their own ways, but we must come to a realization that THIS is the world we live in; however, we mustn't give up hope. We must maintain that we have made so much progress in fighting for our rights. Who we elect for president should not divide us as a country. Rather, we must refer to America's original values of peace and unity to guide us through this calamity.
I know, for some, it's tragic, but like any Greek tragedy, we have to take a step back and ask ourselves: what do we do now? Well, there is nothing we really can do about who was appointed power at this point. I'm aware that there are petitions going around to change the decision, but the fact of the matter is that what happened, happened. Moreover, the deep-rooted problem of this is why people chose to get our president as far as he did in the election. We must collectively realize that changing someone in power will not truly change the minds of those who voted for who they voted for. As a nation, we must acknowledge that there is immeasurable power in words, as Dr. Martin Luther King JR. has proven, and that a driving force of love will lead us to light at the end of this perplexing tunnel.
On a side note, despite what may have been said, all you women, LGBTQ, black, Muslim, Hispanic, disabled beings are worthy. You are worthy and we deserve better. We deserve love, unity, and happiness. Uniformity does not mean unity. Some may believe "the lesser of two evils" won the presidential election. In a span of only a handful of days, division and terror struck America by storm. But in such a defeat, we must wipe the dirt off our hands and get back up on the horse. We must revert to the constitutional belief that formed the foundation of our beliefs. We must believe that We The People, through freedom of speech, can establish peace.
