I hate the hate in this nation. The anger is unprecedented and dangerous. The dark rhetoric is the antithesis of the America of hopes and dreams we know, or used to know.
Yes, there are problems in many communities in our democracy, and in our democracy itself, problems so pervasive that dark rhetoric may sound appealing at times, stoking the worst in us, the beehive in us.
But you can't fix problems by embracing hatred and distrust. When you destroy trust in the foundation of society, you destroy society. When you employ hate to advance ideas, you tarnish those ideas. When you shatter America into two separate shards of class, you are left with two jagged pieces that no longer fit together.
Because of all the hatred and bigotry spewed throughout this election, we have forgotten our humanity and belief in the spirit of America, the soul of our democracy that binds us together, so eloquently stated in the Constitution as "We the people of the United States,” and instead have given into divisiveness, cynicism and hate.
If we allow hate and cynicism to destroy our country and society, destroy what we have built for our children and ourselves, we’ll leave behind a damaged legacy for our children, our hopes and dreams lost in the shadows of suspicion. A suspicion derived from a gradual shift in demographics over the years, a shift from a white America, to a more diverse America, a new, improved America.
The America that once embraced refugees when they landed on our shores. The America that is a melting pot of all of us, once heralded as the greatest strength of our democracy. We can't allow hate to denigrate that strength and divide us. We can't allow hate to destroy America and the spirit of optimism that embodies us.
If we allow hate to corrode our souls, we lose the good in us, the “we” in us, the hopes and dreams that shine in front of us, the beacons that have guided us through darker times.
Through incomprehensible moments that have battered and tested us, we have always found a way back to us. If we don’t find a way back to us this time, and allow hate to blind us, we’ll wander down a dead end street, flailing aimlessly in the dark, hoping for something tangible to grasp, finding emptiness instead.