Donald Trump was declared the winner of the 2016 American Election. As we already know, this has been a huge win for some and a huge loss for others. My initial reaction to the outcome was anger and sadness. I still stand by my belief that Donald Trump will not make a good American president, although I hope he will not be as bad as I originally thought. Yes, I fear for the lives of minority groups and what the circumstances of this outcome could cause, but I realize that the world isn’t going to light on fire and end in the next week or two. The following day after the election ended, I felt nothing but anger and rage towards the people who made this happen. I was so baffled by how anyone could vote for such an awful person to run their country, and call the opposing candidate a criminal when they are at least actually qualified for the position. When anyone around me said that they were happy for Trump winning, I immediately became very upset and blinded by rage. I felt that I needed to correct them and spell out everything that is wrong with Trump. But after I thought about it a bit more, and saw the reactions of the election from people in the U.S. that I look up to, I realized that being angry and cursing at the people who voted for Trump or voted third party was pointless. All I am doing is wasting my time and getting nothing solved. Instead of being angry with everyone, I should put my energy into understanding why this happened and move forward. Being outraged and picking sides, and pitting people against each other, are what someone like Trump or some other person like him would want. All we are doing is making it easier for people to tear a nation, or just people in general, apart.
What we have to do now is understand that this is happening and realize that we are not going to allow people like Trump to rip us apart and tell us what we can and can’t do. We now need to stand up for our rights and freedoms and protect each other from any harm or hate that may come our way. We shouldn’t let our differences divide us so severely, and let someone else tell us how to live. Just because you differ in your political views does not mean that you have to hate them; you just have to understand that they may be seeing things from a different perspective, as long as that different view does not hate a race or community of people or anything like that.
I will never understand how someone could see the good in Trump or agree with most of his policies, but this election has been a real eye-opener. This has taught me that if you do not take something like an election seriously, a terrible outcome can be produced and it will blindside everyone. People may be left with a real mess to try and clean up afterward. But this has also taught me that we all need to still stand together and not let so much hatred fog our brains from thinking clearly. If you just stand around and scream at each other, nothing progressive will be in the making and you will get nowhere. If you want to get something done, don’t just complain about it – go out and do it. Make your goal become a reality. Yes, this whole election has been a mess, and Trump getting into office doesn’t seem to help anything, but now we have to recuperate and get back up onto our feet and start to march, and make a path towards a better future where this kind of thing does not happen again. All I hope for now is that I am proved wrong about how terrible Trump might be as a president, and I hope that all the minority groups will stay safe, and no more hate and discrimination comes their way.
Matea Poznikoff is a grade 11 student at PCSS.