I Voted

Growing up in the United States many of us were taught that America was a country where any would be welcome and where all cultures, beliefs, and forms of love and lifestyles could come together in peace. As we grew older, each of us learned in one way or another that this was not how the United States came to be, nor is it the country we live in today. Instead we have come to know a world where people hate incessantly due to differing beliefs and viewpoints, where others believe that they should have the power to choose how their neighbors live, and where people pick and choose what parts of another culture they will tolerate when all should be welcome to live how they like. Today our country is divided, and this division has been seen more prominently than ever with the recent election. People have forgotten that while the America we live in today is not what we were taught it was in school, it is still a possibility. If only each of us could try to understand rather than refute the unknown, could respond to differences with kindness rather than a closed mind, and could choose to allow others to live the way they choose without trying to impose their own viewpoints and beliefs on another’s way of life. The United States of America is meant to be a place where people have the freedom to make their own choices and to build their lives into what they have always dreamed they could be.

This year there were many candidates for the presidency, but at the end of the day only two received enough opportunity, attention, and votes to matter. The two that pull the people of this country in the most opposite directions. Each of these candidates are men of an older generation who play to either the younger voters with feigned understanding, or the older voters with the hope that the younger generation will not see the importance of voting. These candidates are both lined with wrinkles and have forgotten words when they speak and eloquence when they write. Both have made the women and the children (whom you so loudly proclaim you wish to save) feel uncomfortable and unsafe in a place where they should not fear violation of any kind. Most importantly though, both of these candidates have felt that they have the right to take away the freedoms that so many Americans claim to hold dear… It was simply a matter of which freedoms you allowed to be removed. The two party system has backed Americans into a corner for generations, forcing them into the belief that a vote spent on any other party was simply a waste of time. Is the illusion of safety and comfort that this corner provides woven together so well? This two party system has created an America where only select voices can be heard and only certain viewpoints can take the spotlight. I am no political genius, but the state of this country, of the hearts of the people that choose to live here, has not improved as the years have passed. Voting Left or Right has resulted in a simple cosmetic fix; creating an aura of righteousness for the side whose candidate wins, leaving the gaping hole in America’s chest unattended.

Every four years each of us may proudly post our “I Voted” stickers on our various forms of social media, creating the illusion that we have indeed made a difference. This year was no different. Yet Americans continue about the rest of their lives allowing themselves to believe that change can be left to the politicians and our own actions need not be examined. You will continue to disown your grandchildren for choosing to love someone of the same gender. You will continue to look suspiciously at your neighbor who wears a burka, despite the fact that they came here in pursuit of the freedoms Americans so proudly claim they have. When your best friend tells you that they are disappointed in Bidens victory will you jump down their throat with your righteous beliefs rather than accepting their right to believe something different than you do? As an American, will you continue to slander those who see the world differently, taking away the supposed safety to hold other views? Or will you accept that the freedom to think and believe differently is what will make this country what it was meant to be?

As we step into these next four years, each of our hearts filled with trepidation; we can either step forward with kindness or we can step forward with an undeserved righteousness bought with the freedom we claim to want others to have. Politicians thrive off of our division, and the few that would create the country our great-great grandparents came here for are left speaking into a void that only a few can see into. Our politicians do not heal us when we are sick or wave at us from across the street as we take our children to school. Our neighbors, our friends, those we have yet to meet, and ourselves are the only ones that can change the country we live in today. Will you reach out your hand to those on the other side of the political fence and work together to build the place we believed we lived in? I hope that each of you that read this will choose to put in kindness and effort rather than giving in to the covered blemishes that remain hidden underneath the band-aid of politics. Here’s to the next set of four years.