Some Reactions to Mr. Trump's Victory

photo by Cliff / flickr

My first taste of Donald Trump was when he spoke outside Pendleton, South Carolina one very cold night maybe eight months ago. After walking in the cold for about thirty minutes--when I got to the rally he had already spoken and left. Walking back to the car there was a man selling Tee-Shirts. Emblazoned on the front was: Donald Trump will kick the s... out of ISIS!  Kinda scary to hear those words from a Trump follower. But I reasoned every politician have fans that get carried away. But then the months went on. Mr. Trump's remarks scared me.

Attacks on Mexicans...Immigrants of all kinds...Women...the Disabled...Gold Star parents like the Khan's who had lost a son in Afghanistan...the whole unending Birther myth...and his sneers at poor black neighborhoods...and good decent Muslims. This is not the end of the list. And the hate and anger and rage from so many of his followers throughout this campaign scared me. This was unnerving. I was afraid this venom and hatred would spread.

Well, people all over are letting their fury out on all kinds of people of color and people that are different. I was afraid this might happen. The genie is out of the bottle.

You might want to tap into Sean O'Kane's words that come from the lips and actions of some of Mr. Trump's followers the first day after his election. https://medium.com/@seanokane/day-1-in-trumps-america-9e4d58381001#.dzt6gwwen

My hope is that Mr. Trump will speak strongly against these incidents. When David Duke came out in support of Mr. Trump he denounced him and I was glad. I still hope he will take the lead from what John McCain said when some woman told him: "Obama is not a real American." John McCain assured her strongly that she was wrong and Mr. Obama was a citizen and a good person.

As President of all the people--my great hope is that Mr. Trump will speak out against the hatred that is out there because if he does not it will grow.

What can we do? We can be kind to one another. And includes all the other folk that did not vote our way. We can treat Mr. Trump and his followers with respect. We can let Muslims and Immigrants--legal or illegal--and many others in the minority know that most of the people in this country--including most of Trump's followers--value them and are glad they are here. Many people are hurting today. My best advice is to reach out to them. And when we sit around the Thanksgiving table--it is not time for a political food fight. It is to treasure the ties that bind us to one another. And I say the same thing to those who now wonder if they have much to be thankful for after this election. Oh, but they do.

My other advice is: Mr. Trump is the new President of the United States in January. We must remind him continually that he is a pubic servant and he works for us. We do not work for him.

It will be hard to corral all the venom and hate that is out there--but this is the job of our new President, his staff and all of us.

--Roger Lovette / rogerlovette.blogspot.com