What Happens Now?

We’re still waiting for the final results of the Presidential election as I write this. By the time this is published to Vocal. Media we may very well know who will be the one running the country for the next four years. Much can be said about the brutality of the actual elections, but that’s not going to be what this piece is about. Trust me when I say I have an axe to grind and will share my thoughts about it, but in a productive manner. For this piece though, I want to talk about how we can do our best to move forward after what has been a traumatic saga for many in this country.

I don’t have a crystal ball, I can’t tell the future, and I’d imagine if I had the ability to do so I’m certain it would not be something to be envied given how things have shaken down this year. What I do have is the tendency to hope, to have hope that we as a society, as a country, can recover from this. You might be asking: “How can we recover? We’re so divided, there’s no way we can come together in this insanity, especially with the people who are involved in our political world. How can we become united again, with a country in shambles like this?”; these are valid points of view, questions I don’t have an answer to that will hold any merit of definitive action for how we move forward. However, I can look back at the great movements of our history, and know that anything is possible.

There was the civil rights movement, which had its own share of riots before any changes were made, a fight that is still in more ways than one still going on today with the riots responding to the death of George Floyd. But changes were made back then. The changes I will be the first to admit were small in the grand scale though they were major changes for the time. This all being said, it isn’t fair to say that nothing else can be done.

There was the Gay rights movement, which over its history had its own series of riots, the Stonewall Riots, The White Night Riots in response to the Dan White verdict for his assassination of Harvey Milk. Many changes have been made since that horrible tragedy. Gay marriage was legalized nationwide, a huge stepping stone for the LGBTQ community. However, there’s a hell of a lot more than needs to be done when it comes to the rights of everyone under the umbrella of the LGBTQ community, specifically the Transgender community, many of whom are still targets for discrimination, abuse, and murder.

There is so much that needs to be done in this country, it can make one’s head spin. I feel like my head’s spinning as I write all of this down. That being said, just because the task of achieving major changes is daunting, it does not mean we can use that as the excuse to not fight for the changes in this country that matter the most.

Whoever takes the office, it’s up to us to turn this country into something we can be proud. While the individual in the White House has the power to create new forms of legislation, we have the power to speak, to fight back; not with violence, but with our stories, our pain, and our truth. Take to your social media. Don’t be angry, don’t be hateful. Just talk, just share your story, your struggles, and what you want to see happen in this country. Once you’ve done that, share it with twelve people. And ask those people to share it and so on. Whether or not anyone has shared you sharing your story, you need to get up and volunteer at a charity that means something to you. Some kind of organization you know needs help and funding. That can be a charity for the Black Lives Matter movement, the LGBTQ community, a charity for helping the homeless, or helping under privileged kids. It can be anything that sets your heat fire with the need to help someone. Or if helping a charity isn’t something you have the time for as a parent or a caregiver for a family member, then just say hi to your neighbor. Even if you don’t get along with them, let them know you care about them as one human being to another. It might not seem like much, but it will make a small but important difference. It will create a ripple effect that can move at the speed of life if we can give it the chance to. If you’re not living as you were before the Pandemic, that’s all the more reason to go out and make a difference in any way you can, rather than just sitting on your phone playing with Tik Tok or watching Tiger King on repeat.

This is a moment in history unlike anything we have ever seen in our life time and we need to take it, grab it, and run with it and fight for who we are as people.

There will always be suffering. That’s just the nature of life. Life is full of suffering. It is what we do in the moments between the sufferings that will be the game changer in this entire situation. What I would suggest. No, what I would ask is to read this, take it for what it is; just simple suggestions that might little by little lead to our ability to finally hit the reset button and come to a place where we can say: “I feel safe in this country. I love this country. It hasn’t always been perfect, but we’re coming to a better place, and we acknowledge where it all began, where we were in the middle, and can now move forward.”. I don’t know about you all, but these actions are more than doable. We just need a push to get us there. If this year isn’t the ultimate push, then I don’t know what it is.