This article is about you. It concerns the way in which you treat other people's opinions and feelings. "But Abby," you protest, "You're not talking about me! This piece is addressing the other people. Those stupid, ignorant people are nothing like us. They're disrespectful, obnoxious and self-seeking. I can't believe I live in the same country as them. Ugh. We're not like them. They're wrong, and I'm right." I'm talking about you. Every single person who lays eyes on this piece is meant to be the direct audience for which it was composed. And now my question for you is, "Why you gotta be like that?" I am astounded by the way in which persons are treating other persons during this turbulent election cycle. Maybe's it's not a new thing, this complete disregard for other human's emotions and sense of self. Actually looking back on the recorded history of "civilized" earth, it's not. But I think there is a higher amount of it that can more readily be drawn attention to because of Facebook. It is hard to maintain a high standard of professionalism for ourselves when an older relative is cursing out a particular group or a classmate rants a hateful status. I personally thought Facebook was going to die after middle school and it did for my generation for a while until we were called back for collegiate reasons. Whatever that means we're back, back in droves, and it's escalated rather quickly, in part, thanks to the 2016 Presidential election.This election has polarized, ostracized, and shown us some of the truly horrid lows of the human psyche, much of which we could have lived our entire lives without.

Another "But Abby! I've never heard you talk like this before! You've never posted or talked about anything remotely political in the time I've known you." Again there friend, if you're close to me, you know how my childhood was spent. I am a child of union that came together because of the institution of a democratic government. My parents met in Atlanta via Washington, DC jobs in the 90's where both had been working on the Hill (that's Capitol Hill for my politically dormant friends), one a Senator and the other for the Republican National Committee. If we didn't have the management of the country which have today, I as a individual wouldn't exist. I grew up listening to CNN, CBS, or Fox News blaring on the radio or TV constantly.To this very day if I enter a room with a evening news channel on, I run the other way. Before I was even 5 months old I had attended conventions, spent time at fundraising galas, and had even been at the polls on election day. I knew what a run-off or primary was before I knew how to run or went to a primary school. With this knowledge accumulating and after being entrenched in this world for so many years, I can emphatically say that it's an intense universe to live in all the time. I actively try not to be political or discuss politics because I have seen more times then I would like to count the way in which it dismisses people. It makes people less and smaller than they are -- actual real people with hopes, dreams, and fears. When we base an opinion on someone as a whole based on their politics, you are undercutting all the greatness they could be hiding.

When you learn that a new person you're meeting or seeing online checks the box at the polls, Democrat or Republican, a whole story enters your head that I'm telling you in this moment, is not right or just. You don't know what events happened (or didn't) to them in their life for them to develop that specific political opinion. I've been reading Hamilton by Ron Chernow (the reason for the cover art on this piece and inspiration for the Broadway hit musical Hamilton) and a theme that has seemed to fallen away over the course of our history is the ability to separate the person from the politics. Maybe someone is a small business owner and a minimum wage increase would force them to have to fire even more of the employees they care for to stay afloat as a business so they can provide for their own family. Maybe they voted in support of more money going to college students who pay for loans because they're the first child in their family to go to University and this, this education, is the bridge to a brighter future. Maybe they voted against the death penalty because they believe in second chances not because they love criminals. Maybe they support not supporting the UN because maybe they had family in Rwanda and believed that the UN wasn't assertive enough against the Tutsi genocide. You don't know. If you have to judge someone, base your judgement on positive values that are dearly shared in every world religion or a way of philosophical thought. Questions arise in almost all the major religions -- Christianity, Islam, Judaism, Hinduism, Buddhism, Shintoism -- and in the philosophical works of Plato, Aristotle, John Locke, Confucius, and Descartes. What are they you ask? Do they take care of our earth? Are they generous with their neighbors? Are they kind to animals and children? How easily are they to smile, to laugh, to hug another human? Are they a hard worker? Do they endeavor to improve themselves? Do they treat their elders, teachers, and family members with respect? My God why, why, would you write off a whole fraction of human kind just because they don't fit in your tiny box? When we hate people at first glance we seldom get to love them.

Through my time and experience, I have had the chance to love a vast amount of people and I am made the better for it. Through my unique upbringing I grew up with the very Republicans my friends in California love to hate. And through attending college (at UC San Diego) in one of the most liberal schools in the nation (always after UC Berkeley, ugh) these "crazy, liberal, communist, hippies" are my friends and I love them too. I love them all. My Facebook feed is a insane dichotomy of my best friends from my performing arts schools, "Feeling the Bern," and collections of my classmates from high school who want to "Make American Great Again." And this rant, letter, speech, whatever you want to call it comes back to you my friend. My oh so mysterious, unknown receiver of my unkempt, mash of thoughts. I have a feeling you're still not convinced. "But Abby! Trump is the Anti-Christ!" Um unless we get some religious backup I can't morally join that statement. Is the Presidential candidate Donald Trump a disrespectful, xenophobic, egomaniac who, if he becomes President may incense other international leaders within minutes? 100%. "Ugh! And the she-witch Hillary is any better?!" Not at all. Hillary Clinton, is a weak-willed, pandering flip-flopper, should most definitely be in court right now after handling classified American information in a not so classified way. If Donald Trump is the unnecessarily aggressive Thomas Jefferson, then Hillary Clinton is the go where the power will take you, Aaron Burr. (Another Hamilton reference for you folks).

This is not a article to convince you of who to vote for my friend. I don't doubt you've already made up your mind. But this is a call to change your actions. I'm over your rude comments, videos portraying Trump as Hitler (try talking to some of your Jewish friends about that) or memes making fun of Hillary's pantsuits, (if she was a man you would NOT talk about what she was wearing.) I'm begging you, hidden, receiver of this jumble of thoughts to think before you speak. Think about how what you're saying WILL have a impact on people. You underestimate the power you hold in your actions and your words. You have the ability to change the world. We don't have to be this nasty, writhing, mass of hate that we've become. If you're looking for a sign to change, THIS IS IT. So right now, YES, your political opinion sucks. My clickbait headline rings true. (And it got you, ha!) But the most important lesson I beseech to impart on you, is that it doesn't have to.