In the year 2016, I was a newly minted eighteen-year-old who was brimming with American pride to finally be able to cast my vote and my mark upon the electoral college and watch with anticipation and excitement as the new president was elected. Before this, I watched with a vague interest the past elections and it wasn't until this year that I was fully interested and involved. I did my research, I watched interviews and debates, and even went to a political rally. I wanted to vote, and I wanted to be educated while doing it.
The day I cast my vote was everything I wished for and the day afterward was everything I never wanted.
Don't mistake me when I say the aftermath was something I didn't want; that statement has nothing to do with who won or didn't win the presidency. What I am trying to describe is what happened to our country, to my community, and even to my circle of friends and family after Donald Trump was elected.
I saw hate, I saw fear, and I saw a division I had been ignorant of before that moment.
It astounds me to see how polarized our country truly is on issues and how we can't even come together civilly to come up with a solution. Instead we spend hours upon hours arguing and spewing hatred rather than coming together as one, as a country, to help others and ourselves.
This division amongst us has become so utterly ridiculous and almost comical, that I can't even stand to watch the news anymore. As soon as politics are brought up in conversation, I cut the person off because I don't want to discuss it because I know it will cause an argument. Most of the time, we can't even discuss issues without it ending in words of hate. I even had someone block me on Facebook because I didn't agree with their political opinion. When did having a different opinion become so wrong and unbearable?
People have different opinions and we need to learn to deal with that without getting angry and seeing red.
This has been an issue for a long time, but recently it has gotten much worse and because of this gap I am seeing that is getting wider and wider, there is something I want to say: I don't care if you are a Democrat. I don't care if you are a Republican. I don't care if you are somewhere in-between or completely apart. There is only one thing I am interested in.
I only care that you are trying to be a good person and are doing your best to make your community, this country, and this world a better place than how you found it.
Think about who will come after us and think of those who were here before us. Do you think they benefitted from this gap? Do you think this divide between us is helping us come together at all? I am one hundred percent for having your opinions and I will gladly sit here and debate with you, but only if we can do it civilly and we can do it with one goal: to make things better. If you want to sit there and argue with me because you are angry that my opinion is different than yours, save your breath and my time. I'm not interested.
I am only interested in bettering this world. Call me nuts.
