Can we talk?
Something has been eating at me. A churning in the pit of my stomach. It’s been there for a while now. Quiet at first. A rumble, perhaps. But with each day a little stronger. A tightening in my chest. A persistent nagging.
Someone is going to get hurt. Or worse.
Something has been eating at me. A churning in the pit of my stomach. It’s been there for a while now. Quiet at first. A rumble, perhaps. But with each day a little stronger. A tightening in my chest. A persistent nagging.
Someone is going to get hurt. Or worse.
We are passionate people. I know I am. I have driven hours to see my guy. Driven clear across the country to visit his hometown. I carefully place stickers on my car (on all sides, for maximum visibility), carry buttons in my pocket...
I take time to introduce myself, simply to talk about my candidate. Something I’ve never done before.
So I may be decided, but I’m also open - to new people, new ideas. To important conversations. We can disagree. That’s ok. Your experience is not mine. We should all be heard.
So I may be decided, but I’m also open - to new people, new ideas. To important conversations. We can disagree. That’s ok. Your experience is not mine. We should all be heard.
But something, I fear, has gone terribly wrong. Casual cruelty has seeped into the everyday. Anger. Frustration. Hurt. Whatever our differences, we all feel these things for one reason or another. I know I do. & in the past four years these feelings...
have been carefully cultivated, stewing & swirling & brought to a boiling point.
Sometimes it feels so good to just scream into the void.
Sometimes it feels so good to just scream into the void.
What better place to release the pressure valve than here? The great twittersphere. Here where we can be invisible. Or someone else entirely. Protected by anonymity. Shielded from looking each other in the eye.
But here’s the thing. Somewhere, somehow we’ve lost sight of our humanity. You may not support my candidate (nor I yours). That’s ok. But my candidate is not the enemy. He’s not a Republican. Not a Manchurian candidate...
He’s not a racist, not a white supremacist. He is not the “wrong kind of gay”. He’s just not your candidate.
I am also none of these things. Just someone who supports another candidate.
I am also none of these things. Just someone who supports another candidate.
I’m not innocent. Im not a victim. I’m certainly guilty of a harsh word, a closed mind. Of something tapped out in anger, later pulled back in embarrassment and self reflection. To err is to be human. We all make mistakes. Insert cliche here.
I’m talking about something different. Something ugly. Something... scary. An unadulterated disregard for one another. A frenzied tribalism. Not just indifference but an erasure of anyone outside our own bubble. This is not ok.
The stakes are high. I get it. But this actually isn’t the void. There are real people here. There are consequences. We need to stop this, whatever it is, before it swallows us whole. Before blind ambition leads us....
to four more years of Donald Trump. Before someone gets hurt beyond the boundaries of twitter.
The reason I chose my candidate is because he makes me feel hopeful. Yes, he speaks to my feelings of anger and frustration, but instead of stoking the embers, quenches them...
The reason I chose my candidate is because he makes me feel hopeful. Yes, he speaks to my feelings of anger and frustration, but instead of stoking the embers, quenches them...
He talks of change, but not a revolution. He talks of bringing people together. I want to fight for what is right, but that doesn’t mean I want us all to fight each other. It doesn’t mean we have to. 
