(Election Thoughts) + Have You Heard? // The Head and The Heart - "All We Ever Knew"

Wow, what a hard week. After hours of watching election coverage on Tuesday night I barely slept. I had a pretty hard time speaking to people on Wednesday, I nearly burst into tears at work several times. I wrote a VERY long caption (and two following comments - because it was so long...) on IG related to my feelings on the election and some of it's aftermath. If you'd like to read it, please do.

What I, as a voter for Hilary want you to know (regardless of who you voted for): Things I Can't Change/Control: I can say with certainty that I am not particularly a fan of Hillary or of Trump. I would not have been thrilled with either put into office. However, the difference here with Trump being elected, is that we now have so many minority groups who are actively fearful for their lives and for their rights as of this morning. People of color being harassed in public, LGBTQ+ folks being harassed in public, muslims who fear leaving their house in hijab today, black churches being burned by the KKK, Holocaust survivors having Hitler flashbacks, elderly and disabled citizens who are concerned for their livelihood. That's not ok to me. That's what is concerning so many of the discontented folks today. That's why I did not vote for Trump. Decorum, respect, and love are more important to me than charisma, and the promises of a candidate. The rights and safety of the American people are more important to me than the individual policy decisions that varied between the two candidates. I'm utterly sickened by these fears and the actions that are causing them to be validated, and I don't belong to many of these minority groups. If you do, I'm here for you. At least half of the country is here for you. We value you, and we will do our best to stand with you, and to protect you. I'm trying to remain hopeful that the rest of the country, and that the government surrounding Trump in future days will do their best to protect you as well. I say I'm "doing my best" to remain hopeful, because to a whole lot of US citizens (and other citizens across the world) it looks like white supremacy, prejudice, and hate won this election. We'd like to be proven wrong. We need to foster love instead of hate, and while I don't agree with America's decision, I hope that we can move forward, and that much of Trump's disrepectfulness and prejudices are not present in his presidency.  Things We Can Change/Control: Showing our support for those who need it, especially among those who fall into the worried minority categories. Continued in comments....

A photo posted by Alexandra Consolver (@simplyalexandra12) on Nov 9, 2016 at 8:17pm PST

The gist of it is: I'm very worried about what this election means for the people of this country. I'm very worried at the hate I'm seeing leading up to and following it.

The hopeful part is: hey, be nice, be respectful, try to make the world around you a better place regardless of your politics.

It's probably better to read the whole long thing... because as I type this... it feels incredibly insufficient. So incredibly insufficient.

My heart is pretty broken.

This song has really been resonating with me and getting stuck in my head for the past few weeks... turns out it's saying a lot of what I am feeling post-election as well.

"All we ever do is all we ever knew // It's time to wake up from this // It's time to make up for this."*



*in my mind "this" is hate.

Anyway, please be kind this weekend. Please be respectful this weekend. People are hurting. Whether or not you feel the hurt... it's there.

Please have a good one, and let people know that you care about them.

I love and respect each of you. You matter to me.

Other Posts This Week: October Reads & Snapshots of The Hoover Dam.

A special thank you to Veterans today. Thank you for your service to this country. Here is one of my favorite organizations for Veterans. It's called Companions for Heroes, and it pairs vets with shelter animals. Incredible work being done there for vets and pets! Maybe an organization to sponsor this year. :)

XO,

Alexandra