Wednesday, November 9, 2016

Congratulations, Mr. Trump

For the first time since I moved to this country in 2007, the morning rush hour midtown subway crowd is completely quiet. In the deathly silence after 42nd Street, a cell phone rings at the far end of the subway car. A disembodied voice, lost in the crowd of dejected faces, is head yelling "Es una ruptura de la democracia," - this is a breakdown of democracy! - before he presumably loses his cell phone service and there is silence once more.

It is a dark day for America. The land of opportunity, the great melting pot, has, today, done itself a disservice. It has elected Donald Trump as its leader. It has bought into his rhetoric of hate, indiscriminate hate against anyone who is not a privileged, heterosexual white male. It has supported his misogyny that is more than just a meme, it is a painful reality for millions of sexual assault survivors that were told, "It's your fault." It has approved of his racism: his economically bogus and inaccurate plan to build his famous wall, his blatant islamophobia, his dislike of anything and anyone who is even slightly different from him.

This is not a drill America, and this is not temporary. This is not to be mocked or laughed off. Fifty percent of the country has sided with hatred and ignorance. Fifty percent of the country has chosen a loud-mouthed woman hating bigot over a woman. I am shaken.

Today, you have made me lose faith in you. I am in shock. This is not the country I fell in love with. This is no longer my home.

To all those who feel my pain, I call on you. We must not let the hate win. We must let intelligence and education triumph. Ignorance and bigotry has won today, but we must persevere, harder than ever before.

So I will congratulate you, Mr. Trump. But I will refuse to call you president. You are a misinformed, undereducated, hate-mongering idiot, and I weep for the future of your country.