Lately, all you see on news stations, TV shows, and even here on Odyssey is everything regarding the 2016 Presidential Election.
It seems no one wants Hillary Clinton to win, yet no one wants Donald Trump to win.
I am one of these people.
I’m not here to talk about my political view points or point out the obvious that Donald Trump is a pompous, arrogant jerk (put nicely). Nor am I here to talk about how Hillary’s term as secretary of state does not qualify her to be the next president.
While we’re sitting here arguing over who we should vote into office to run our country to the ground, we are missing the bigger pictures.
People are running around rampant with guns, causing mass destruction.
People are committing hate crimes against others because of the closed mindedness of those before us.
People are losing their jobs as a result of outsourcing.
People are falling further and further into a giant gap between the upper and middle classes.
We have come so far to try to move on from the prejudice formed from slavery, yet we are once again forming judgments against our own citizens based on the biases of a very small group of people.
Here’s a few things I think we’ve lost sight of over the past, oh I don’t know, two or three centuries:
1. George Washington, our first president, warned us of the dangers of political parties. He claimed it would divide the nation and cause more animosity.
2. Our government was founded upon the basis of doing what is best for the country as a whole. This means that we should be doing what is right for others, not focusing on what we believe is right versus wrong.
3. One of the other main things our government was founded upon was the separation of church and state. When the pilgrims and other immigrants traveled here from England, they did not like how every law revolved around the Bible, thus the creation of this statute.
I think in terms of our beliefs, this is the one we forget about the most. Yes, people are religious, and yes the bible might have quotes that do not support the LGBT community in their wording. But the general message of the church is to love thy neighbor as if they were yourself. To love others unconditionally and widely. And the whole idea of the bible is to do what’s best for others and to put them first.
Let me quote my favorite verse (which I love so much it will possibly be forever inked on my skin very soon):
“Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil, but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres” – Corinthians 13:4-7.
So if the bible truly does speak against the LGBT community, it also stands up for true love. So how can we incorporate a book that supposedly plays both sides of the field, when it isn’t even supportive of every religion here in this salad bowl that we call the United States.
I think that people have become so immersed in their political parties that they have forgotten the basis of what our government stood for when it was created centuries ago.
I think we should reflect upon what our nation has been going through, and choose who we will vote for not based upon the party that they represent, but by what they claim that they will bring to the table.
If that means vote for an independent party go for it. If you thoroughly believe that Clinton or Trump is the right fit for the nation as a whole, not just for your own basic beliefs then vote that way.
