Dear
friends and loved ones of mine,
If you
voted for Donald Trump, we can still be friends, and I still love you. I
understand that for many of you, the prevailing issues revolved around the loss
of your livelihood or your insurance, or your distrust of Washington politics
and a desire to shake it all up and see if some ‘outsider’ could remake
government in the image you prefer. For others of you, this was a moral stance
revolving around your interpretation of your faith, and a desire to secure a
conservative majority in our judiciary branch that will uphold your belief
system in our nations’ courts. Whatever your reason, it is your right as an
American, and as a human being with free will, to vote as you choose and I honor
that wholeheartedly.
However,
the candidate you elected is a man of odious character, a man who has lived his
life far removed from the lives of ordinary citizens for the whole of his existence.
He may be an outsider to politics, but he is part and parcel of the ruling
elite that has oppressed us all and hijacked our government, so I am charging
you with holding him accountable to your will. You have given immense power to
a man who has shown little respect for the interests of anyone but his own
social class, of which you and I are not a part.
The
candidate you elected is a bully and a cheat. He uses his wealth and status to
break signed contracts made with honest business people with impunity, and yet
you have entrusted him with championing the cause of the working class. It is
true that he may lift regulations that will bring back jobs in the energy sector,
but at what cost? Our climate is warming. You may want to believe that it is
just the natural ebb and flow of our planet, but science has shown that the
emissions of combusted petroleum has a direct and measurable effect on the
temperature of Earth. It would be wise of us to not add to what is already
happening, whatever the source. It would be truly great of us to be innovators and lead the world in the creation and
adoption of new technologies that provide for our needs (including jobs) while
also addressing the needs of our habitat.
The
candidate you elected used derogatory and hateful speech to describe our
immigrant citizens, and did not forcefully rebuke the white supremacists among
us. If you are White and voted for this man but are not a bigot or a racist, I am
going to need you to prove that beyond a statement that you aren’t. I need you
to open yourself to the idea of institutionalized racism, and I implore you, in
the privacy of your home and head, to explore the contents of your mind honestly.
I ask you to please read essays and books like ‘The New Jim Crow’ by Michelle
Alexander or ‘Between the World and Me’ by Ta-Nehisi Coates, and if you can’t
commit to reading then please watch ‘13th’, a documentary that is
currently streaming on Netflix. Educate yourself about what being a person of
color in this country has meant, please, and consider that the anger and
frustration you feel at ten to fifteen years of instability in your workplace
is a lifelong reality for POC in these United States. Try to imagine their
desperation and empathize with it. If you are not a reader, then get involved
with the Boys and Girls Club or some other entity invested in the fight for the
equality of all our citizens, or donate some money to organizations that fight
for the rights of people of color and immigrants. And above all, if you see or even
hear an immigrant or POC being
abused, then get your non-bigot self in that fight and stand up to whomever is
doing it, because your credibility is now on the line.
The
candidate you elected has a recorded history of believing he has the right to
sexually assault women if he finds them attractive and did nothing to censure
the rampant misogyny displayed by many of his supporters on their shirts,
buttons and bumper stickers, or in their chants which rang through his rallies
in swells. If you cannot win your position without being abusive, then I lose
respect for your position. I ask that you show your disapproval of your
candidate’s treatment of women by opposing any moves he may make to dismantle
Title IX or any other legislation our current administration passed on behalf
of abused women in this country. I also ask that you be a part of the very
important conversation surrounding consent that is happening right now so that
we can build a world where everyone, men and women alike, knows exactly what
constitutes rape and therefore doesn’t do it.
The
candidate you elected has surrounded himself with extreme social conservatives
with Fundamentalist religious beliefs that you may very well share. Once upon a
time in my life, I too would have voted for this man, solely for this reason. I
would have looked past all his unsavoriness and unfitness for this office so
that I could participate in making God’s laws the law of the land. Today I believe
that behavior to be a form of American theocracy, and I vehemently oppose such
activity. Jesus’ followers begged him to be an earthly king, and he declined. Please
consider that the repealing of the freedom of marriage act would only serve to alienate
people from your mission. If you are accepting of LGTBQ people, even if you
disapprove of their lifestyle, you will likely have to show that by protecting
their rights, not stripping them away. All love is legitimate and deserves the
protection of law. I suspect that Roe vs. Wade is also in your crosshairs, and
since I was once indoctrinated against abortion, I feel I understand your
resolve, and doubt you will be swayed by stories of women and girls who made
one of the most difficult decisions of their lives, so I guess consider me your
respectful yet determined opponent on this topic.
The very
worst of our collective selves came out in this election and we are weary. It will
take the very best of all of us to
heal up from this harm, and prevent it from continuing. We will all need to
reach beyond ourselves and our insulated bubbles to make it through together. I
pledge to you, my friends on the other side of this chasm, to defend your right
to vote as you please, and I will stand up against any abuse I see leveled
against you for this choice. I pledge to hold myself to these same standards that I am asking of you. I will also do my best to understand and respect
your beliefs and experiences, and will not assume that I know your character
because I know the way that you voted. Things are seldom as simple as that, and
people never are.
Above
all, please know that I am available for conversation and remain grateful for
your presence in my life.
Much love
and hope-
Drea
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