The Election

So Donald Trump is our President-Elect. Hillary seems to have won the popular vote by a narrow margin, but he won the Electoral vote. So, whether good or bad, Donald Trump is our President for at least the next four years. I have already seen many posts on Facebook bemoaning this fact. People wanting to move to a new country. Celebrities who threatened to leave if he became President being told “Bye, Felicia! Don’t let the door hit you on the way out!” with gleeful sarcasm. People saying they are scared, angry, deeply disappointed. People saying how hurt they are that the racism, fear of LGBT+, etc. runs so deeply, as evidenced by the fact that Donald Trump was elected President. Posts saying, “Hey, thanks a lot for voting for that third party candidate, idiot! You are part of the reason we’re in this mess now!” And on and on…

I did not get to vote in this election. I recently relocated to Texas from Colorado, and did not get my driver’s license and voter registration changed in time to be able to participate in this election. The only person who is responsible for that not happening in time is me. I am not happy or sad that he has been elected, though. Whether it was him or Hillary, my life would not have changed on a personal level. There will be change on a national level because of this election that will eventually affect me, but my personal, day-to-day circumstances are not going to change based on the fact that Donald Trump is the President-Elect. My day-to-day circumstances will only change as I act to change them.

I don’t especially like Donald Trump. To be honest, I think he’s an arrogant, self-centered blowhard who just spews whatever controversial words will get him attention. I can’t stand that behavior. I also don’t like Hillary. Forget the flap about her emails; yes, that was a 3 ring circus, and I don’t think she was truthful, but that doesn’t bother me as much as Benghazi does. Her behavior regarding Benghazi, and the four military men who she seemingly left on their own to die, strikes at the core of my being. It is the main reason I do not want her to be my President. There is much criticism of both Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton for various things they have been accused of; this criticism should be considered along with the reasons for it. With that said, I was not physically there to see the bad behaviors exhibited by either one of them, so I really cannot judge either one.

Donald Trump is the next President, regardless of what I think. I am hoping that he does not act as he has said in his campaign. I sincerely hope that so many of his words were just meant to inflame public opinion and garner attention, and not actually reflections of what he will do in office. We will see. If Hillary had won, I would wait and see how she behaved in office, as well.

No matter who is in office, though, I am proud to be an American. There is a lot that needs to be changed, certainly, and it is my responsibility just as much as anyone else’s to work to make that happen, but there is also a lot of good in my country, and I am happy that I get to be a part of it. 

Veteran's Day 2016

Veteran's Day is coming up this Friday, November 11th. I feel strongly that we must more actively support our military veterans. I've seen some halfhearted support--every so often, a picture of an elderly man holding up a handwritten sign proclaiming his status as a WWII vet and asking for likes/shares will pop up in my Facebook feed. More often than not, this elderly man is white. The fact that I’m noticing his skin color is, in my mind, a terrible reflection of one of the problems in today’s society. The fact that it is more likely to be a man than a woman is also troubling. There were black and Hispanic men fighting for our country. There have been women fighting for our country. ALL of these people deserve our gratitude. ALL of these people have made great sacrifices. We should celebrate our black veterans, our Hispanic veterans, and our female veterans just as much as our white male veterans.

As I mentioned in my Veteran’s Day post last year, I actively appreciate our veterans, especially our Vietnam War veterans, all year long. And I truly believe that we do not do enough to support our veterans. We also do not verbalize our gratitude to them, except when we are reminded or it is a popular day to do so. The BLM, PLM, and ALM movements have grown in popularity over the past year. And some of the people in each of these groups have a valid point about their particular group’s goals. I’m going to add another one here: MVLM. Military Veteran’s Lives Matter. These people should not be ignored for most of the year, only trotted out on Veteran’s Day to be remembered and thanked. I would never encourage anyone not to thank or celebrate a veteran; however, I also would never condone saying or doing something to/for a veteran only on this one day of the year. It doesn’t matter if the veteran is leading a successful life or living in a cardboard box under the local bridge. He or she has sacrificed greatly for my country. For YOUR country.

Please thank the veterans you know or cross paths with. Please acknowledge and appreciate their service to this country, even if you don’t agree with the politics or the war. NEVER miss an opportunity to express your gratitude for the veteran’s contributions to and sacrifices for our society. But please make sure you do it all year long, not *JUST* on this one day of the year. Make your appreciation of them meaningful. Make it sincere. And make it real.