Well, Berkeley Carroll, he did it.   The racist, sexist, ableist, tax-avoiding cheeto man is on track to become our president on the 20th of January next year.  Our little liberal bubble burst and now we’re forced to ask ourselves how the hell did this happen?  The only reason I can give at the moment is that our country is flawed.  The fact that there are people who voted for him despite all of the incredulous statements he’s made speaks volumes about where we are as a nation.  Whether we supported him or not, we each played a part in his becoming the president.   Those who supported him helped him and believe it or not, those of us who didn’t support him helped him too.  We didn’t take him seriously and then he came up from behind and fooled us all.  We were blindsided, shocked and to be honest, we played ourselves.  Nobody saw this coming.  But despite that, this election got people talking.  This election started conversations.  This election is what America needed.

It lit a spark which started a fire that will not burn out as long as we don’t allow it to.

This man, an outsider, a bigot, a misogynist, successfully infiltrated our precious democracy and that is really, really scary.   Everyone, especially the minorities that he has targeted, is one hundred percent entitled to the fear that they are feeling.  Everyone is also entitled to their own opinions and the right to share them.  Respecting opinions that differ from your own is completely your choice but know that making the decision to respect or disrespect is only a reflection of who you are and what you stand for.   Have discussions with open ears.   Keep discussing, keep yelling and shouting your opinions.   Your voice will be heard.  Although he might be able to take away our rights, he will never be able to take away our words.  However, spewing hate will only cause problems.  By using our voices to advocate for and support one another we will send the message that we plan on persevering through this presidency and we will create change.  

Even though we do not stand behind his morals, we must accept him so that he may hear us.  There is nothing we can do to stop him from being president at this point but we can turn him into a president that does more good than evil as long as we tell him what we stand for.  We stand for an America that is already great and can only get greater.