In the post-election world, Facebook has been filled with charged, emotional posts regarding their personal politics and the politics that affect their friends and family members. I feel like I’ve seen it all. From heterosexual white men and women posting an article that features Donald Trump holding an LGBTQ flag to LGBTQ individuals posting about their hope for love in the future regardless of political affiliations, social media features anything and everything people are thinking about the election. All of these diverse opinions and stories can be overwhelming. Therefore, I’ve decided to give you my perspective on the election, which consists of some opinion, some fact. Because my voice matters and unlike someone’s belief that climate change is a hoax perpetuated by the Chinese (I’m throwing a little shade), facts are inarguable and shed light on the truth.
First of all, Donald Trump is the President Elect of the United States
There, I said it. You knew it was coming. For some people, his future presidency feels like a breath of fresh air. The political field has been penetrated by an outsider. There is hope for change in this stagnant democracy. But for some people (I am in this group of people), Trump’s time in office represents a much different future. I have envisioned a future without national healthcare, Planned Parenthood, LGBTQ marriage equality, and progress towards racial freedom. It isn’t a bright future. However, for a feminist like myself, this is an interesting twist in my former vision for the future. The opposition to my core beliefs as a feminist are no longer intangible ideas floating around in the air. Words like misogyny and bigotry aren’t just words you use in your Gender Studies term paper: the opposition has given these words a solid form.
I can now see the people in the House, the Senate, and in the Oval Office who will deter my feminist agenda. They are real, and they have some serious power. But now, more than ever, I have to fight. I have to make my voice heard. This election has made me realize how hard so many people have worked to get the United States to where it is now. Slavery is gone. Women aren’t the property of their husbands. People can marry whoever they want. Why? I’ll tell you why: people like me have fought for these rights. And now it is my time to take on that struggle.
I know it doesn’t sound fun. Yay, my life is going to revolve around continuously fighting a patriarchal, racist system until everyone finally has equal rights. Fantastic. But it needs to be done. And I am going to do it.
So I call to you, my fellow feminists and patriots in equality and equity. Do not be disheartened about this election. Take it as a wall, a huuuge wall, that we need to overcome. It’s a test, but we’re going to get A’s, because we have studied for so long and learned so much that it is impossible to fail… as long as we show up and try.
There were protesters in our park who walked to the Army Corp. of Engineers office and protested the Dakota Access pipeline, which I understand would go under the river located on the ancestral lands of the Sioux at Standing Rock reservation. This has been my fear–that we will disregard the environment once again, and damage the lands of the Native Americans AGAIN. We disregard your generation, Bailey and future generations If the Omaha District of the Army Corp. of Engineers issues the permit for the Dakota Pipeline.
Thank you Bailey for your passion for all people and striving for justice and peace. The work sharing love, kindness, justice, and peace and reconciliation continues day after day, one day at a time. Thanks to all the people in generations before us who laid the groundwork for human rights. May we be the groundwork for future generations.