Election 2016 #4 more personal

I thought this was one of the most important comments on Tuesday evening as election results came in.  It is a real and deeply important question - what does the elction of Donald Trump say to our children and grandchildren?  In electing him we have legitimized his behavior - after all we chose him to be the leader of the USA.  We have legitimized bullying.  We have legitimized sexual predation.  We have legitimized bigotry.  We have legitimized racism.  Racism, bigotry, predation, and bullying were a part of the American experience but before Tuesday we worked against them all.  People were embarrassed to be bigoted and careful to express those kinds of thoughts.  Now even those who previously called themselves "morals voters" have put their stamp of approval on all of the above.

I do not want my grandson to see Donald Trump as a man whose behavior he is to emulate.  I don't want him to see a world where a man like that is rewarded with the highest office in the land.  I don't want him to believe that any of those things are OK.  Ever.

I do not want my granddaughter to grow up in a country where the leader brags about committing sexual battery and churches lift him up as their choice.  I don't want her to ever experience being touched by any man without first giving her consent.

I don't want my Muslim, immigrant, gay friends to live in a nation where they must live in fear.

Yet, we are already seeing a multitude of reports of all of these kinds of behaviors on the rise.

On Tuesday I posted a comment on Facebook - I wonder whether this is a country in which I can live...  I was pondering the possibility of moving somewhere else... Today, my answer is still "no," but my path is not to leave.  I was too complacent before.  No longer.  I will work harder and harder to make this the country in which I want to live.