If you had told me that I was going to write this post this morning, I’d have laughed in your face. Simply because I had nothing positive to say. Whenever I write blog posts, there has to be an end goal in mind, whether I am helping you with school or inspiring you to accomplish your goals. It seemed impossible this morning, but now I feel like there are some things to say that can possibly make a difference.
(Disclaimer: I’m going to write about some things I heard today. Not all of these are my words. I’m going to keep their names anonymous)
So this is going to start out sad. I woke up with my alarm and immediately checked my phone. It read that Donald Trump had won the presidency. I was speechless. I couldn’t believe it. It just didn’t seem real. When I had gone to sleep the night before, things weren’t looking good, but there was a sliver of hope. Now, it’s gone.
The last time the United States had a Republican president, senate, and house was 1928. You know what happened in 1929? The Great Depression (Then World War II, but let’s not get into that). This morning started with my dad and I talking about what this means for us. As a Muslim (Even though half of us aren’t Muslim or religious) family in the south with a member with disabilities. Within the next few years, the value of the U.S dollar will go down and many people will be struggling financially.
If internment camps are created for Muslims (Even Non-Muslims who simply have brown skin), we have no idea what will happen to Mysoon. Hell, we have no idea what’ll happen to us. The news was no better. A newscaster said, “I have friends who are immigrants or Muslim who are calling, asking me if they should leave the country.”
Needless to say, my morning was full of a lot of fear. A fear that I can only describe as what I read about in dystopian novels. I have never feared the government in this way before. That was always a perk of being born in America.
A dark cloud seemed to be looming over Atlanta all day.
If you look at the polling map of Georgia, you’ll see all the areas around cities like Atlanta and Savanna were blue. Atlanta is a huge city full of immigrants and African Americans. Everyone on the train and people I passed in the city had gloomy looks and only offered sad smiles because they empathized with the future that was coming for all of us, whether it’s deportation or more racial profiling.
Everyone at school was just upset. Atlanta is a really liberal place, despite being in Georgia, so most agreed with each other. Everyone was in disbelief. Teachers ended classes early because even they were just as emotionally exhausted as the rest of us.
Here are some quotes of what I’ve heard today
“My roommate and I cried for hours last night”
“A close girlfriend of mine told me that she has citizenship in Scotland and that we should get married while gay marriage is still legal here”
“They realize if they outlaw abortion, they are only making it more dangerous for women. We’ll go back to the ’20s where women are found dead in back alleys because they don’t have access to safe abortion clinics.”
“I’m not leaving the country. That exactly what he wants!”
There were a lot of, “I want to cry!” sentiments.
My professor said to the class, “You all look dead inside,” before dismissing us.
“I’m wearing black today because I’m mourning America.” (So many people did this. I would have, but I’d have felt even more depressed.)
“Just watch. By 2020, we’ll have to be married in order to vote because women are going to slowly lose their rights.”
This is the only good thing I heard: “I have found out that so many of my new friends are in the LGBTQ+ community.” This was so nice to hear. Like, at least a soon to be national and international crisis is bringing people together.
This is what a friend of mine said about Trump’s tax plan. She wrote this herself:
“I’ve been trying to find the words to properly convey how I feel… and this is all I could come up with.
First of all, you can ignore the social issues with Trump all you want. But it does not change the fact that Trump has said terrible things to a myriad of people- lgbtq+ people, Hispanic people, black people, and people with disabilities.
If your argument for ignoring his awful statements was “his economic plan is good for the country”, you are misinformed.
This brings me to my second point- Trump’s economic plan is horrible for the United States. You can read up on the projected effects of Trump’s plan here. But in summary, his plan will add $11.2 trillion to the national debt by 2026 which is an estimated increase of 39% of GDP. Currently, our debt in terms of GDP is about 71.8%. Trump’s plan would raise it to approximately 110.8%. These are levels that should concern you. These are levels that do not bode well for America’s economic health nor standing worldwide.
So no, Trump’s plan will not restore the economy to its glory because the country is already in a state of economic strength. Rather, Trump’s plan should strike apprehension in your hearts.
America is already great. We are a nation of diversity, we are a nation of economic strength and Trump is a threat to both of these things.”
Social Media
Seeing so many awesome comments on social media was really great. Here are just a few.
I Spend A Huge Chunk Of The Day Reframing My Future
I was planning on moving out next year, but with Trump as president, that’s not the smartest move. If the economy is moving towards another depression, my money will serve me better in savings. It was either that or not travel as much as I’d like to, but I feel I would get more out of life if I spent my money on travel and experiences than rent or student loans due to living in a dorm.
That was also something that came up today. A guy and I were talking about how if we left the country for vacation, we’d have trouble coming home because of the “temporary ban on Muslims” despite the fact that we were born in the U.S.
There are other thoughts, too, like getting more and keeping scholarships, so I don’t end up in debt. Plus, I may have to help out my parents if it comes to that. Then there’s the whole new Healthcare plan thing, which probably won’t take autism into account. My next few years of college will be much more stressful than it would have otherwise.
(Not to mention the whole internment camp thing, which probably won’t happen but people keep talking about)
All day my mind has just been thinking of possible scenarios that I (And many others) may go through.
The First Time I Smiled Today
The entire day, I was surrounded by extremely depressed people. I had smiled today. They just weren’t real smiles. They were more, “If I don’t smile, I’m going to cry” smiles.
I was at the subway stations. While going down the escalator, I heard this little kid laughing. I looked behind me and saw a little 3-year-old boy in a stroller. He was looking down the moving stairwell and just gushing excitement. His laugh was just echoing everywhere. He looked at me with those big happy chubby cheeks and I had to laugh, too.
This is obviously not the leader we want our children to see. They can hear all of the terrible things people on both sides have said. They understand. My little cousins are terrified that something will happen to them and they’re only 7.
What we need to remember is that there’ll be something after this. I still have a sponsored post due at the end of the week and two essays due next week. I am turning 19 this month. I have finals soon. Life is going to go on. Might as well enjoy it.
With That Said, We Still Need To Do Something. We Can’t Just Wait Around For Four Years And Complain On Social Media
Avoiding reality isn’t going to change it. There are limitless possibilities in terms of what can happen in the next four years.
If Planned Parenthood is shut down, we can’t just complain to our friends. We have to write actual physical letters to protest. We shouldn’t find dead women in alleys due to faulty abortions anymore.
We need to actually go to those rallies that want to repeal the right to gay marriage. We need to make sure children with two dads or two moms aren’t taken away.
Even if we don’t let any more refugees in, we can still donate money to causes that will help them because America is one of the countries selling guns to their government and bombing their homes.
Even though the Republican Party rejects the existence of global warming, we still need to do our part in helping the environment. There are things that we can’t reverse in four years like the polar ice caps melting. We can plant more trees and make electric cars more available.
Most of all, we need to fix this system. Hillary Clinton got 206,443 more votes than Donald Trump. Many of her votes were like mine. No matter who I voted for, Trump still got Georgia’s electoral college votes. She won the popular vote. The United States government system that has a 7% failure rate. That is far too high for “the greatest” country in the world.
Since I Don’t Want To Leave On Such A Depressing Note, Here’s Something To Make You Laugh
I do want to end on this note. Don’t blame all Republicans. Many Trump supporters aren’t racist or sexist. They simply wanted a new type of president. At the same time, there are people who do believe in this stuff. Hopefully, someday we can change their mindset.
I am still hoping that there is a possibility of Trump being a good president. The chances of this aren’t high, but he wasn’t expected to be elected either. He may surprise us.
(If you liked this post, check out this post by The Financial Diet.)
I’d Appreciate Your Support Of This Blog By Following Me On:
How was your day today? How do you feel about this election? How do you feel in general? I truly urge you to comment.
This post made my heart happy. Today was a whirlwind of emotions and negativity; I haven’t even finished processing it completely yet. But I’m grateful to have read this. It definitely put me on the right, more positive mindset.
Thank you. This is what I hoped this post would do. I didn’t even read back over it because I thought I would change my mind about publishing it. I’m still processing it a bit, too, but I’ve come to accept this new reality. All we can do is make the world better in any way we can. So many people stand by and complain but don’t actually DO anything. This attitude only makes life worse. I just hope I can add a bit more positivity because there is so much we can do. I also simply don’t want people to go about talking about useless things like boys or parties when there is a whole world out there that needs our help. Let’s just get through the next few years without ruining too many lives.
Also, I love your blog. It’s so fun to read.