Greetings Friends,

By the time you read this, the world will have changed irreversibly. The United States will have a new president, and the country will settle into a new normal. Unfortunately this new normal is a pretty sad state of affairs. This election has become a breeding ground for hatred and discord in our lives. We see division in a way we haven’t seen in our lifetimes; we are allowing ourselves to be torn in two. We each have been led to believe that our opinion is the correct one, and our own candidate has confirmed it and the other candidate has confirmed it as well. But remember this: at the end of the election, regardless of who is elected, both Trump and Clinton will walk away as multi millionaires, while the common, average person struggles to make it from one check to the other. This is where we need to stand together.

There was once a time in our country, a time not so far away from us yet an eternity in our past, when we cared about one-another.

We’ve become so self centered, so self interested, that we can’t see the beauty in our fellow human, regardless of race, gender, sexuality or political opinion. This isn’t the human race I’d hoped to see in 2016. We have grown to despise our fellow man for differences beyond our control.

There is something amazing about the human race that follows us from the moment we are born to the moment we pass on into the next life: potential. People differ on their philosophies when it comes to human potential, but the fact of the matter is this: when each one of us is born, we are born with the same potential as everyone else, regardless of who our parents may be. A baby born to the poorest of peasants in the poorest country has the same amount of potential as a child born to the wealthiest of the wealthy.

This potential, in my opinion, never goes away, clinging onto you until the moment you take your final breath. We have the capacity for change in the most amazing way as humans, and you are never too old to change or bring about change in the world. As we cast our vote, we have a say in the direction the world is taking. We participate in the greatest system in the world, one that gives the common people the same amount of say as the wealthy elite. Whether you cast your vote for Trump or Clinton, or someone else entirely, you are acknowledging the potential that one person has.

What if we evaluated everyone based off their potential rather than their shortcomings? Well I think the world would be a much better place.