Let’s Get Some Perspective, Shall We?

Well, it happened, we know who our next president will be and he’s not the one we wanted. Already families are fighting amongst each other and the question asked most frequently is “how could you vote for him?”

Let’s put this into perspective, shall we?

Most didn’t vote for Trump, fewer votes were cast for Trump than were cast for McCain in 2008 or Romney in 2012.  Democrats didn’t change parties and vote for Trump, Republicans didn’t come out in record numbers to cast those votes either. Let’s not forget that Clinton carried the popular vote as well.

So if the votes for Trump fell short what happened?  Even fewer votes were cast for Clinton.

I’ve compared this election cycle to the 1960s. We didn’t like the direction the country was headed and elected John Kennedy, for change.  Later, we saw mass protests of the Vietnam war and saw police brutality at those protests, today we  have Standing Rock.

History does repeat itself and while this is more serious than seeing a repeat of bell bottom jeans or the beehive hairdo, we can’t ignore that from time to time we will see an ugly side of our population rear its head. When that happens we do our best to correct it and move on.

We did just that in 2008. Tired of eight years of Bush we voted in a man who promised transparency and change. We believed him but he let us down on many issues.  Now we are seeing another uprising of the disenfranchised people seeking a solution to the problems they face daily. I can’t judge them for that.

We can’t blame the results of this election on bigots and racists, although this dark side of our population couldn’t be ignored as we watched ignorant comments being made by supporters of the candidate.  Let me pose a question to you. In my home state of Pennsylvania in both 2008 and 2012 we voted for Obama, this year my state turned red and handed the votes to Trump. Would a racist vote for a black man twice?

We’ve survived the Great Depression, World Wars, Civil War, McCarthyism and so on, and we will survive Trump. It won’t be pretty and we may have to get out there and act in our best interest.  What we can’t do is allow ourselves to be divided over this election. We can’t allow families and friendships to be torn apart by politics.

My son put it best on a post to his Facebook page

Let’s start loving and not hating each other, let’s get back to being friends and not enemies. I love you all no matter who you voted for or what your views are.

We can argue for the next four years on the dangers of a Trump presidency and how bad he is but what we aren’t seeing through the fear -and yes there is plenty of reason to fear- is that we may  have been given a gift to get up and fight for the country we want. All change comes from the bottom up. Let’s continue to protect the water, recycle, set an example that will lead children to respect the earth. Let’s help those less fortunate in our communities and hold local government accountable. We can do all this and more.

Whatever you cared about yesterday, you still care about today and will tomorrow. Keep fighting for what’s important to you but most of all, Love. Love the world and be the change you want to see.