BY KELLIE DURHAM
Just gonna leave this right here for today…
"Accept this election."
"Stop whining."
"Suck it up."
"It is what it is."
"Just give him a chance."
Okay, so can we have a fucking minute here? Like for real?
When you say these things, do you really know what you're asking of us? I need to break a few things down before I can move on with life today as I did yesterday and will continue to do one day at a time.
So we are taught to "accept the things we cannot change and change the things we can."
"Accept this election"
I am aware that as of Nov. 9, 2016, Donald Trump is indeed the president-elect. I know that in January this man will be my country's President Trump. I accept that. That has happened.
"Stop whining"
First of all, I'm not whining. It is taking everything I have to keep from screaming. And occasionally, crying. I don't know if you've been around the past year, but I have watched this man kick a breastfeeding woman out of his rally, proclaim that he could "shoot someone dead in the street" and people would still vote for him, make fun of people for the way they look, joke about a woman acting a certain way because she was on her period during a televised event, mock a disabled man, call global warming a "Chinese hoax" and hear him admit to sexually assaulting a woman.
"Suck it up"
So let's rewind back to this treatment of women. I am a victim of sexual assault. More than one. And we are a population of many. I have had a friend be harassed out of the women's bathroom to go use the correct one. She is a female. Born a female. Just had short hair and wears baggier clothes. I have had a Muslim friend driving down the street have a truck drive up next to her and start calling her racial slurs, harassing her and telling her to go back to where she came from. She is from Michigan. But let's say I wasn't a victim of assault, and my friend was trans, and my other friend was from Syria: does it really matter? Is that what we do? We walk up to someone that has been violated and hurt, look them in the eye and say, "Suck it up"?
"It is what it is"
Okay, let's rewind again and recap some moments from this past year. So we watched all the white people pushing the young black women around with no intervention at one rally. Like you saw that, right?
In Las Vegas, individuals at a Trump rally yelled "Sieg Heil" and "light the motherfucker on fire" toward a black protester who was being physically removed by security staffers.
Two Muslim and Hispanic students in Kansas were violently attacked by a man that called them "brown trash" and to, "Go home. Trump will win." Along with, "Trump, Trump, Trump, we will make America great again. You losers will be thrown out of the wall."
At a Dallas rally for Donald Trump, a Trump supporter took over a microphone connected to loudspeakers and shouted, first in Spanish, then in English, "The Mexicans are the hairs of assh***s. Viva Donald Trump." The woman then told a female protester, "Clean my hotel room, b**ch." A man also mocked the protesters, stating, "Somebody press 1 for English."
It took the man an entire week simply to denounce David Duke, the Imperial Wizard of the KKK. The Ku Klux Klan, people. Like, he really had to think hard about it.
And these are only a few examples. (For those of you that didn't catch any of it — I assume you didn't if you voted for him.) But basically the list just goes on and on: xenophobia, racism and hatred. Over and over. No action to prevent it from the guy who was too busy winning bigly. Which he did do (remember, I accepted that part).
"Just give him a chance"
Okay, so this is just my opinion, but I kind of feel like the point of a campaign is to give the individual candidate a chance. That, and the combination of their political and career history. Like that's their chance to prove themselves. And I think when you're 70 it's been pretty well established. So…
– Four bankruptcies.
– Sexual assault and harassment.
– Blatant xenophobic, sexist and racist statements.
– 3,500 lawsuits. I will give him some credit — he was only the defendant in 1,400. About 75 of these lawsuits are currently pending, probably the most important of which is for fraud and racketeering. Just felonies. No biggie.
– Three marriages (this one doesn't bother me, but I know people were really upset about the marriage Hillary had with her husband and like the whole institution of marriage and Jesus stuff). And technically he plead the fifth 97 times to committing adultery so I mean we really can't be totally sure he ever cheated on any of the three…
– Zero political experience, and though I can't be entirely sure, I'm pretty sure knowledge, as well.
But okay so the past is the past, what is he going to do for us? Right? It's about moving on, coming together and the future and shit, right? That's what you're asking, isn't it?
Okay so let's check out some of these big promises:
Build a wall
This one is super easy to remember, especially when I got to watch the video of it being chanted over and over by those middle school students in the cafeteria. I'm not sure what the wall will do for the feng shui of America, but I do sort of feel like it definitely sends the message that we hate Mexicans. And immigrants.
Defund Planned Parenthood
So okay. The word abortion stirs a lot of feelings with people. But here's a cool thing, though people refuse to believe facts: Planned Parenthood does not use its funding for abortions nor does it sell baby parts. Many locations don't even perform them. That being said, one of the most time-tested methods of how to prevent abortion is access to effective contraception. I don't know if you know this, but Planned Parenthood is really good at that. In fact, the prevalence of abortion is going down in Michigan not because of restrictions, defunding or the closing of clinics but because of the spike in women getting IUDs which are required to be covered by (sorry guys) Obamacare. Planned Parenthood also provided me with my annual pap smear and breast exams on a sliding scale during the period of my life when I was uninsured. Which is super awesome.
But all of that aside, I am a happy, healthy, working (and living) mother of two because of my access to my abortion when my birth control failed me in 2006. Abortion is a constitutional right – in case you don't know the Constitution very well. But I assume you do, because I heard a lot of "it's my Constitutional right" arguments. So of course you knew that! Anyway, one in three women will have an abortion in their lifetime. Want to bring that number down? Fund, fund, fund! Access! Contraception, contraception, contraception! (Free).
But Trump loooooves women. (Assault and sexual harassment isn't love, bro).
Ban Muslim immigrants
So yeah, I mean, what else do we say about this? Trump doesn't trust, support or like Muslims. Or immigrants. And the only word he needs to use to make that argument is ISIS. A terrorist group that wears the disguise of Islam but does not represent the religion or culture in the slightest. Xenophobia.
Kick out Syrian refugees and heavily surveil mosques
More Xenophobia.
Cut funding for space exploration
Maybe he's afraid we'll all escape to Mars instead of Canada. Or maybe he just hates space; I really don't know what the point of that would be. Is he really an alien?
Target and kill the relatives of terrorists
So I actually know someone whose good friend is in jail for murdering his entire family (mental illness). So we should find the rest of his relatives and kill them just in case? Or… Robert Dear, the guy who shot up the Colorado Planned Parenthood? We kill his relatives because of his act of terrorism? And Dylan Roof? Yikes, I'm just all around confused here.
End birthright citizenship
Birthright citizenship is the automatic granting of citizenship to children born on American soil regardless of parentage. So people come to America for freedom and a chance at a better life (pretty sure what America was actually founded on), they have kids – kids are not U.S. citizens because… They would get rights?
So I guess what I'm saying is: this motherfucker has run out of chances from me. Like he took all of his chances and he just piled them up and took a nice golden dump on top of them. What chance? Seriously? What number chance and why?!
This is not Bush v. Kerry. I was disappointed. But that I could accept, suck it up, give the guy a second chance, and all that shit.
But when you tell me to "accept it, suck it up, give him a chance and to stop whining," you're actually asking me to shut up. Stop talking about all the racist, xenophobic, sexist, hateful and insane bullshit this sociopathic president-elect is bringing into the White House with him. Just be a good little American, relax and let it go. Turn a nice obedient blind eye to his behavior, the behavior he has brought forth from others, his impending trial for possibly committing felonies, and continue on like this isn't all happening. No. No. No, I will not do that.
I will call him President Trump. He won the 2016 election. That is how it works. But this will not silence me. In fact, I'm only going to remain somewhat silent as I go through this grieving process. For me, when something feels wrong deep within my heart and soul, that is God calling me to action. And taking action and voicing my opposition is super fucking American, in case you didn't know. President Trump's election will not mute my voice. And if you can't handle that, then just like your elected president, it appears you are too cowardly to handle truth, facts and opposing opinions.
Can you accept that?
