11.11.2016

Change Shoes

I wore my sneakers this week.

Everyday. Even on days I should of dressed up a little...

Not sure why, I also cleaned my office.

I did things I don't always do. Its good to break routine, do something different, change your perspective.

I am struggling, we are all struggling to understand what this election means. Do people hate that much? Or are they just pissed about corruption in politics? Or is it both, neither, maybe some of each and more of something else?

I don't know. What I do know is that our country is full of hypocrites. Don't worry, I include myself in that pile.

If Clinton won, when protests broke out we would of called them ignorant, and racist, and that they don't love this country and the people in it. They would of said they are leaving the country and we would of laughed and told them good, go. They would of tried to overturn the electoral college and we would of demeaned their understanding of democracy, called them sore losers, and laughed at their failed attempt to get their candidate to win, and all while calling them un-American.

Well Trump won, and what are we doing? Protesting, rioting in some places, creating petitions to get the electoral college to elect Clinton, talking about moving to Canada and burning the American flag.

We are all kinda the same right? Oh but it would be blasphemous for me to say something like that, that is totally un-American of me to say that we are similar. Clearly people who don't think like us are un-American.

So what are we supposed to do? Rally? Protest? Sign petitions? Yell at people?

I don't know, its hard for me not to know, I am the guy who is supposed to know what to do. I can't just plug forward business as usual, but I can't just drop everything else.

For now I am collecting ideas, how can I get more people involved? How can others help create change? How can we solve this problem not just complain about it. How can we harness this rally energy and turn it into action.

Right now we all need to stop, and put ourselves in other peoples shoes. The shoes of an undocumented worker. The shoes of a rural farmer. The shoes of a DC politician. The shoes of a protestor. The shoes of someone not like us, and think from their perspective.

I remembered one of my favorite quotes about brotherhood from Edwin Markham, and when I went to find it to share, I found this quote instead. Perfectly timed. Let's think about others and love them, it just might be the only thing that saves us now.