Tuesday, November 8, 2016

Dear America

I read something that I'd like to share. Aaron Paul posted the following on instagram yesterday.

"The 11th hour has come and it is loud. Louder than before. Louder than ever. You family and friends fighting with one another, picking sides. Raising their voices to be heard. Spitting out the cliff note facts they think they might know. She said he said. Wrong. No. Stop. Enough. We are split. There is no talking to the other side. Either side. Republican or Democrat. Whoever wins there will be half the country holding each other, screaming, crying, packing their bags (if they can) and moving because they may have lost hope in this beautiful country of ours. The land of the free and home of the brave. Whatever happens tomorrow let us all remember we are living on this pale blue dot in the middle of nowhere and none of us knows whats going on. What I do know is that we should all have at least ONE responsibility and that is to simply LOVE one another. Simple as that. Let us just try and keep our heads high and now as a nation and stand strong by each other's side no matter the outcome. Do this in a kind way. A loving way. Not in a I told you so way. No more hatred. No more bigotry. Let us work thru our beautiful and flawed differences. That's all. Thank you for reading. #VOTE"

This. A thousand times this. Today I read the following also on instagram. Are you following Jedidiah Jenkins? You should be. His words are amazing and always so thought provoking.

"I once saw I spider in Versailles. I was on a tour and I saw this tiny cobweb and a spider living in the corner. I wondered if that little lady had any idea she lived in one of humanity's greatest places. I wonder if she knew her web was sewn onto gold leaf. I wonder if she cared that blood was spilled and slaves whipped and Marie-Antoinette died in the theater of that little spider's home. 

"I bet the spider thought nothing of it. Nothing of our spectacle. Nothing of our grave history. Just, 'dang, I wish there were more bugs in here.'"

Do any of us really take in the majesty of where we are? The fact that we're all tiny ants on a giant blue ball of water in the middle of an endless sea of space? How many Americans actually take in the fact that we are shaping our little corner of history? That we have a hard-fought right to vote. It is a right, also a responsibility. A responsibility to educate yourself on actual issues and, sadly, for many people, the way that our government is set up. 

I very proudly say that #ImWithHer. Not because she's the lesser of two evils. Not because I think the other candidate is a deplorable human being. I do think that, but you don't vote based on who you think is a 'better' person. You vote, hopefully, ideally, for the candidate that you feel will best represent the values you stand for in the leading of our great nation. In order to do that you have to do a little bit of research. By research I don't mean listen to commercials on tv, or realistically to news broadcasts. Every one has their bias. If you're going to listen to either side of a news broadcast, watch knowing that bias exists. On both sides. 

I had a conversation with a coworker as we were leaving work last night that sums my voting experience this year. "The reasons I voted for Hillary were all policy based. The reasons I would have not voted for Trump are all societal based. Because he has no actual discernible plan or policy that I could find." Aside from the fact that I still don't know that 'societal' is the word I was looking for (or a word at all tbh) That pretty much sums it up. 

We also had a discussion on how realistically, no matter who wins the presidency very little if anything of our day to day lives will change. And the gross impossibility of some of the claims made by Trump. Are there actually people that believe that the president himself can overturn Roe V Wade? People, IT IS AN AMENDMENT TO THE CONSTITUTION PEOPLE (the 14th... look it up if you're not familiar). In addition, are people not familiar with the three different branches of our government and the balance of powers? Even if all three branches of government were on board, such a drastic change in AN AMENDMENT TO THE FREAKING CONSTITUTION would take a shit ton longer than four years. I wish people -our own fellow citizens- were more educated on the way our government runs. Did you take that little online quiz thing that spun your opinions around all the candidates platforms and told you who your opinions were the most alike? I took the full long version and 97% of my views aligned with Hillary. Even I was surprised. Less so, the more I looked into each platform issue. 

My point is this. Be educated. Make informed decisions. Make choices on what you want, on what you know. Not based on hate. Do I think Donald trump is a deplorable human being who has zero respect for women, who is a bigoted racist who is so alike Hitler and Putin that it honestly makes me shudder, who is a dishonest and terrible business man? Yes. Is that why I didn't vote for him? No. I didn't vote for him because My values aligned more closely with the other candidates. Because I truly feel she is the better and more qualified candidate who will continue taking this country in the direction I'd like to see it go. I made the decision based on these facts. 

And if the election doesn't go the way I'd like it to, I'll be ok. Like I said, I realize that very little about my day to day life will change. Honestly, more than anything, I would be disappointed and sad for the state of humanity in our country. At the amount of hate and anger toward our fellow man that has been exhibited. The lack of integrity in leaders who refused to condemn actions they themselves found deplorable. The way that we fix that though is love. I have a voice. We all have a voice. An I hope today we all used that voice and let it be heard. At the polls. And I hope tomorrow we all use that voice to unite as one country, as one human race and be a little more kind, a little more tolerant of our fellow man. We're all in this together. Like it or not. So let's use our voice to be kinder to every person we meet in our little corner of this little blue dot we live on. And if I wake up tomorrow and the election has gone the way I hope it will, thenI hope tomorrow we all use that voice to unite as one country, as one human race and be a little more kind, a little more tolerant of our fellow man. We're all in this together. Like it or not. So let's use our voice to be kinder to every person we meet in our little corner of this little blue dot we live on.

Do what you can to make your little corner of this space we live on a better place. And realize that it's a very small corner on a very small space. Perspective.

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