Congratulations to all my friends, family, and others who voted for Trump for reasons other than his hate rhetoric during his campaign. You are the ones who are not his publicized supporters, or I would not be writing this for I cannot believe this hate resides in the hearts of all who voted for him. I know you are not the ones who are xenophobic, racist, or feed into the rape culture by making statements such as we have heard courtesy of the media. While I do not understand the choice you made and can only assume it is because you are fed up with lifetime politicians or really believe your guns were going to be taken away or you really felt his business ‘expertise’, I know you are not aligned with the hate groups which have backed him through this whole process. So please hear me out on what I am going to say next.
Based on the behavior of many of those hate groups and of people who have harbored that same hate deeply but left unspoken until now, many of your friends and family not only feel unsafe but are unsafe. Hate and race crimes have increased in the past year, as well as the hate speech. As I know you are not the kind of people who would participate in this kind of behavior (otherwise you would not be reading this) I am addressing you personally to take action now. Help keep your friends and family safe. If you see someone acting in a racist way or making racist comments, you MUST step up and stop it. If you see a woman being berated or spoken to or acted upon in a way that is belittling or aggressive, you MUST act. If you see someone targeting another because their skin or religion is different than yours, you MUST protect them. You may be asking why I say you must, I’ll tell you why.
This behavior is not just a side effect of your vote. It is the consequences of it. You cannot pretend that the hateful speech of your chosen president did not have the effect, but the proof is plain as day. With black churches/synagogues/mosques being targeted, people already feeling they have the right to denigrate women openly in public, people in stores already acting out against people with different skin color than their own, the writing is on the wall. The election of a man, who despite so openly using hate speech has risen to our highest office, has given license to anyone who holds this same hate in their heart to begin acting on it. And since you chose to vote for him, for reasons I choose to believe have nothing to do with his hateful speech, it is now up to you to protect those who his speech has put in harm’s way. There have been and will be consequences for your choice, you have to accept that. There are always consequences to our choices. But real men and women, decent human beings, take responsibility for the consequences of the choices they made. If you are the kind of people who I believe you are, you will too. Therefore it is now up to you and I to protect the people his hate speech has put in harm’s way by given credibility to this hate – by making him president.
So congratulations on your win. Now protect those you know and those you love from the people his hate filled campaign has given license to behave in deplorable ways.
My life in the Burbs 