So, the elections happened.
They definitely didn’t go the way I thought they would. Anyone who knows me knows how I lean, it’s nothing I’m ashamed of despite the fact that the person who I wanted to win lost the election.
I come from a very conservative state in a very conservative town. Hate speech is nothing new to me, however, I never thought that in my lifetime, my rights would be in jeopardy. You can agree with my statement, or you can disagree, but you cannot deny the fact that people’s rights are in jeopardy and have been for a few years.
I know what a lot of people think, I’m just a young adult, still a kid, and I don’t know anything about politics so what I say doesn’t matter.
Here’s the thing, I can vote, I can own a credit card, I can buy a car, I can buy a home, I can legally drink, I can do all the things other adults can do. The only difference is: they’re older than me.
That does not make me any less of an adult.
So listen to me when I say our rights should not be up for debate. I respect your values and your beliefs, but when those values and beliefs start infringing on my rights as a human, that’s where I have an issue.
If you don’t like abortions, don’t get one. If you don’t like gender reassignment surgeries, don’t get one. Mind your business and let other people live their lives.
Women, queer individuals, people of color, and any other minorities are not a direct threat to your life unless they’re coming at you with a machete.
In my grandmother’s lifetime, women got the right to own homes, have their own bank accounts and credit cards, and were able to do things on their own without a male figure with them. They also saw gay people have the right to marriage.
This also happened during my mother’s lifetime but the difference is she is witnessing it all crash down.
I should not have less rights than my grandmothers and my mother. Part of democracy is being able to sit across the table from one another and have a civil discussion about politics.
Politics has become such a sensitive topic on both sides. People are allowed to have different beliefs, however, you cannot be surprised if your beliefs upset people, especially when those beliefs are actively against minorities.
There is too much hate in this world. We already have enough issues as is, we shouldn’t have to worry about dying because of hate. We have bigger fish to fry people.
Here’s the thing, I really hope that people who voted for the other guy get everything they voted for.
I never want to hear anything about felons being able to do things because one was voted into the White House. That’s a fact. Donald Trump was found guilty of 34 felonies. A New York jury convicted him of all counts.
Google is free.
We need to educate people better on how to follow and decipher politics. Just because you self-identify with one party does not mean that you always have to follow them to the ends of the Earth.
The main issue is people are afraid for their children and grandchildren to learn because they don’t want them to find out that they were the ones behind all the horrid things.
In the next election, 2028, Gen Alpha will be able to vote. Not many of them, only the first 11 months of those born in 2010, but they can vote.
Keep that in mind when you want to strip people of their rights.