By Sam Stack, Print Editor-in-Chief
//The first couple days after the election were probably some of the most upsetting, down trodden, and just overall weird days of my life. However, there were multiple reasons for that.
I was so dismayed over the fact that a man who had so many beliefs that negatively affected so many people in my life was elected to become President. I was sad; I legitimately had trouble finding a positive out of anything. But that’s just my view on things.
What made me so much more distressed was the amount of anger, hatred, and verbal abuse that was thrown around at the Acalanes campus from all viewpoints. School is supposed to be a safe place for people to have an opinion, or to get away from the outside world, gather knowledge, and socialize with one another. Unfortunately during that time period those characteristics were lost.
Yes, a man was elected to become President who has been essentially degrading the Latino community, the LGBT community, Muslims, women, and people who are disabled. And yes, people at our school voted for him. But that does not permit you to call those people who voted for him a racist, a bigot, a homophobe, or a misogynist. Because that’s only elevating the problem.
You don’t know the full story as to why they voted for him. They may have voted for him for a whole different reason. They may have found his tax policy something that they agree with, or any other policy that he has. Attacking someone because of their opinion on a matter isn’t healthy nor does it solve any problems.
However, on the other side, with the outcome of the election, it does not mean it is acceptable to say what you want about other people. You should not reference students based on race or religion suggesting to “pack their bags”, nor should you tell people who were walking around school with tears in their eyes processing an outcome that they may not have wanted a derogatory term referencing female genitalia.
Everyone has the right to their own opinion, while yours may vary from someone else’s, it doesn’t mean you should hate that person because of it. Our country was founded on varying viewpoints. Our founding fathers came together and established a nation because they found a middle ground.
They took their ideas, came together and constructed the best possible product that they could create. And look, 240 years later, that nation is still more or less standing strong.
I can tell you one thing though. I bet that the founding fathers did not expect to see such polarization between ideas that nothing was unable to get done. Not only is it evident in our everyday lives but it’s evident in Washington.
When Obama came into office he wanted to create a stronger sense of bipartisanship, but that wasn’t the case. Gridlock was created and essentially, any way to move forward was stalled. Members from the other side of Obama’s viewpoints decided to stalemate any decision that he was trying to make simply because they did not believe in what he was saying.
At that point, shouldn’t it be a moment to realize, let’s compromise to find a solution and to move this country forward? But with the lack of progress and stopping people from trying to execute plans to make the nation a better place, there has been a large sense of anti-establishment feeling.
But that anti-establishment feeling began to foster hatred and that’s largely what the campaign was based upon. It was bullying toward every opponent until they had lost. Now hatred is deemed as acceptable because a man just became President doing it. That is not something I’ll stand for.
However, I think the two major political parties have developed a nature or a philosophy of being two separate teams with different goals and mindsets, which is horrible. We are all on the same team with the same goal: To move this Nation forward and make it a place as to where I’m proud to live in.
This is where we are? Lowering ourselves to call people “Libtards,” rapists, terrorists, misogynists, or saying that people who are protesting are doing it only because they have free time due to the lack of a job. Not only is that petty and childish, but it doesn’t get anything done. I’m sure throwing anger back and forth has never created any solutions.
I grew up saying the pledge of allegiance every morning at school. Every morning I’d say the words, “One nation, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.” Seeing how some people have acted the last couple days has led me to believe we aren’t as indivisible as we lead ourselves on to be.
Unfortunately, the case for many people at Acalanes and so many people around the country is that when they walk around they are so much more conscious of what people may potentially think of them. They may believe people think of them differently because of their viewpoint, or because of their skin color, or because of their religion, or because of their sexuality, or even because of their gender.
This is what upsets me to the core. People feel so unsafe in all walks of life. There’s only one thing that can really solve any of these problems and that’s just spreading your love and positivity.
It’s time to stop hating and time to start accepting, loving, and finding what’s right to move forward. We’re all apart of the same team. But the sad fact is, so many people are in a polarized mindset that it’s tough to even approach someone and attempt to rekindle a relationship and find a middleground.