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The Last Four Years

Ever since Nov. 4th 2016, life has been exponentially worse if you're part of the minority.

By Mae McCreeryPublished 3 years ago 9 min read
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The Last Four Years
Photo by Jacob Morch on Unsplash

I am not normally someone who openly talks politics. I do read a lot about it, I study bills and what the Senate and Congress do and I do my best to stay a well-informed citizen of the country I live in. However, the last four years have been the hardest and strangest of my life and it started on November 4th, 2016,

Maybe I should start on November 3rd, yes the news reported people divided and how the Cheeto Dusted Puff Ball was gaining supporters left and right but no one was taking them seriously because Hillary was going to win anyway. I went to breakfast with my mom and there was this group of men that always had breakfast together, they were all retired and all very friendly and always held the door open for us if we came in at the same time and we'd wave hello. I went to work and there was a temporary work crew there that day, we joked around as we worked and listened to music and had fun together as we worked. We don't talk politics or religion at work, its a general rule since we all come from such different backgrounds but we get along anyway. We'd worked together for years for the same events and never had problems with each other. I came home that night and watched the Election and my anxiety and depression skyrockets as I watched riots break out all over the country and mixed crowds celebrating or screaming into the night as tear gas shrouded them in darkness.

I went to work early the next, thinking to myself that the world wouldn't change that much. I live in California and in a mixed political county, but as with every other election I had experienced in my life up to that day, we all ended up getting along anyway. I got to work and sat at my desk and started sorting my emails and messages before I went outside to continue setting up for an event that weekend. One of the guys came in, I waved hello to him and asked how he was doing since he had to change hotels at the last minute and had told me that day before he hadn't been sleeping well due to some new medication he started. He came right up to my desk and started laughing in my face.

"I am ECSTATIC. WE won!" He whooped like he was 18 instead of 65, and then made a frowny face at me. "Awwww are you said that your girl lost? TOO BAD!" and then proceeded to dance into my bosses office for a meeting.

I had never talked politics with this man, never given a hint as to which way I leaned. But here he was assuming I voted for Hillary (I did) just because I'm a woman and then cheering in my face about winning like it was his own personal victory.

I shook it off and went outside to set up. Three male customers that day in MAGA hats tried to get as close to me as physically possible. They would drop things and tell me to pick them up and got mad when I wouldn't. One guy kept calling me 'sweetheart' and 'sugar' even though he had never called me anything other than my name before.

The day the event came, I was relived because at least it was the last one for the year and then I could lock myself in my office and wait for this wave of creepy men that had suddenly emerged to end. That was the worst event I have ever worked in my life. Four men in MAGA hats that I had never seen before followed me from 9 am when the event started to 8pm that night when I clocked out. I was managing an auction and had to hand write items and bids and buyers for a while near the end and I didn't think anything of it when it started, I was in a big group of people and sometimes people bump or stand too close to try and read what I'm writing or its a simple accident.

I was wearing shorts since it was unusually warm day, but I noticed at the very end that those men were trying to grind against my ass because when I felt someone behind me they'd laugh low in their chest and they were so close I could feel it. I was shaking so badly I could barely write. As soon as I wrote the last bid I ran. I saw those men wandering around in a crowd looking around and I just grabbed my backpack and told my boss I was exhausted since I had been in since 5am and that I was leaving. I sprinted to my car and drove away like the Dukes of Hazzard.

I got home and I was alone that night but I double checked every window and door to make sure everything was locked up.

I was terrified to go back to work the next day. I told my boss what happened but those men never checked in and no one recognized them so there wasn't anything they could do.

"Just don't wear those shorts again." My boss muttered as he walked away.

That was less than a week after the election.

The amount of times I've been stopped by someone who was wearing a MAGA hat or some other kind of identifier that they were a Trump supporter and hit on aggressively is astronomical.

I've never been stopped by the cops before, but a month after the election, I was corned by a cop who started flirting with me and asking if I needed an escort home. I also witnessed cops in my home town get more aggressive, sometimes for it seems no reason. I was waiting for a ride one day and there was this boy who might have been 15 or 16 that was at a shop across from me. I was at a cafe and he was sitting on the curb on his PSP playing a game with headphones in. He wasn't bothering anyone and was just sitting there. There was really nobody else around him, he wasn't directly in front of a business. Hell, he wasn't even sitting in front of a parking spot. Just a kid playing a video game.

Suddenly, a police SUV screeches to a halt and three huge cops burst out and full on tackle this kid to the ground. Another cop rushes on site with a K9 and the dog is sicced on this kid. He's screaming in pain since he hit the concrete pretty hard with three guys who were easily 250 pounds of muscle on top of him shoving his face into the ground and cuffing him. Three other SUV came up and surrounded the kid so I couldn't see what they were doing to him. I didn't know what to do so I grabbed my stuff and ran a block down the street.

From a far, I saw a couple cops come out and start asking a few bystanders what they were looking at. My ride pulled up then and I asked them to drive down the opposite way. I was shaking so hard and on the verge of tears. Barely a day goes by where I don't think of that poor kid, I have no clue what he might've done to get five cop cars and at least 12 officers on his ass like that but that was excessive force.

Having a President who was recorded talking about sexually assaulting women and being a bigot, seemed to bring out the worst in everyone. Suddenly, white male republicans felt like they could do those things and who was going to stop them? It's been proven that if you get enough people angry on television, you can become President. So, they showed their true colors. So many men and women that or years I had gotten along with, suddenly felt like it was their right to tell me that the clothes I wore were too revealing or not revealing enough. That they could leer at me and what could I do about it? Report them? To a board of directors filled with their friends who did the same things? To the cops, most of whom were not nice to begin with?

I almost forgot, one guy that I know was training to be a cop and he came in one day to just chat. We were friends and I did have a little crush on him, but one day in 2017 he came in and asked what I'd do if he ran into my office in a panic and told me to trust him and get in the car with him and just drive away with me. But just take me to dinner far away.

Yeup, he said that to me.

What would I do if he kidnapped me? Wait, I'm sorry, apparently if I get in a car willingly it may not be classified as kidnapping.

I carefully cut off ties with him then. I was so afraid of being up front with him that he might get mad and do something worse. I reported him to my boss and the best they could do was make sure I wasn't alone with him again because it wasn't an upfront threat and he had never done anything physically to me.

But he made sure to find me when he came by ever since then.

Now, November 10th 2020, its official that Joe Biden will be our 46th President. It's like finally being able to take a deep breathe after getting over being sick.

I know the racism, sexism, and fascism that has been running rampant for the past four years won't stop today, tomorrow, or maybe next year. To be perfectly honest, I don't know if it will ever be contained after these past few years but a girl can dream dammit.

After all of the riots, the threats, the almost wars, the Coronavirus, and being locked in our homes with our parents; the millennials are so over this bullshit and no Biden wasn't everyone's first choice but I would have voted for anyone over Trump. I would have voted for an aloe plant. I never considered Kanye West, because that's worse but almost literally anything with a pulse would have been better than Putin's Little Bitch.

After all the pain that we;ve gone through, as a country we need to find some common ground. Something that can heal us and help us move forward to a future that we can share together and to make sure we are never as divided again.

It'll probably be Baby Yoda. I've yet to meet someone who didn't think that little alien is cute.

At least now I can watch SNL and finally laugh at their political sketches instead of laugh-crying into a wine glass when they pop up.

opinion
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About the Creator

Mae McCreery

I’m a 29 year old female that is going through a quarter life crisis. When my dream of Journalism was killed, I thought I was over writing forever. Turns out, I still have a lot to say.

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