United we stand and divided we fall.

Election 2016 – perhaps one of the strangest rollercoaster rides in terms of elections that this country has seen in the few election cycles – is now over. We now have a winner and a loser with very little that can be done about it now save for a few options. We can only move forward and prepare for what may or may not be ahead.

Have Your Voice Heard: Become an Odyssey Creator

The question is what do we do in order to do that?

Anything and everything but what we are doing now. We don’t have to agree on political stances, moral stances, etc. But we do need to give each other the common courtesy to understand that we are entitled to our opinions, popular or not.

We have one problem! We have yet to be able to get to this point this time around.

I have personal friends who have felt so attacked by their own friends and family that they deactivated some of their social media accounts and dealt with panic attacks, suicidal thoughts, stress and health problems that results from these problems.

I have friends whose family has all but disowned them for their beliefs.

I have friends of varying races and sexual orientations who feel like they have to keep one eye over their own shoulder, watching their own backs as they are afraid of being attacked – be it verbally, physically, sexually or all of the above.

I have friends and family that believe that because Trump was named the next president-elect the world is going to end. (Remember when Obama was elected the first time that a lot of people thought that the world was going to end? Granted, it didn’t go as good as it could have gone but the world is still standing and still spinning on its awkward little axis.)

I am sure that if you looked into your own friends and family that you will more than likely find at least one case of any of the above instances as well.

It is really a sad, sad state that we are in. Reports are pouring in from across the country of things ranging from racially based attacks to vandalism proclaiming ‘Make America White Again’ with a swastika to students holding major protests in light of the election and its results.

In such a divisive time, we need to stand together. We need to watch each other’s backs and stand side by side as we watch and see what Trump brings to the table. When you compare his speeches in the last few days to statements that he made over the course of the campaign, it paints two different pictures and different possibilities of what could lay in wait ahead. Seriously, go look it all up.

Now, I’m not a big Trump personally (and don ‘t misunderstand, readers, I wasn’t a fan of Hillary either) but since he has been elected I’m of the mind let’s see what he has got. Let’s give him a chance to make it or to break it. We don’t know how his reign in office is going to go. It’s just too early. What we do know is how we can act and react as a collective group of people. No race, no sexual orientation, no class of people are greater or lesser than anyone else and does not warrant attacks of all kinds, fear of all kinds and suffering of all kinds. A single campaign and one man cannot change that.

Reach out, hug someone who is hurting, listen to them for a few minutes, buy them a Coke (or a beer if you both are of age), take someone suffering a meal, pay for a gallon of gas, pick that five dollars that someone goes over at the grocery checkout… We all face the same problems at one time or another and we can all help solve them, help heal each other. Remind yourself and the world at large that there is hope during this time of anger, anguish and angst. Remind yourself and the world that we can weather this storm if we huddle together and support one another. Love one another, if only for the fact that we are all human and we share the same rock we call home. Be a brick that builds a foundation towards a stronger tomorrow – not the stone that shatters a window.

In closing, I leave you with this quote that I found after searching the site, GoodReads.Com. Remember, it is okay to accept that there are certain things physically and mentally that distinguish us from one another and that those things are not bad things. They are the colors and textures that make up the tapestry of humanity.

“We are all equal in the fact that we are all different. We are all the same in the fact that we will never be the same. We are united by the reality that all colours and all cultures are distinct & individual. We are harmonious in the reality that we are all held to this earth by the same gravity. We don't share blood, but we share the air that keeps us alive. I will not blind myself and say that my black brother is not different from me. I will not blind myself and say that my brown sister is not different from me. But my black brother is he as much as I am me. But my brown sister is she as much as I am me.”
― C. JoyBell C.

Until next time, readers.

See you then.