We Are Better Than This

I tend to not share my political or religious views on social media, or even discuss them with many people in daily conversation. That's not to say I don't have very strong views, that I am passionate about, but I feel that people tend to be quick to judge and I would rather be known for my character, rather than what party I vote for or what god I worship.

That being said, I couldn't help saying something after the election results last night.

All I posted was a Facebook status that read "we are better than this."

This morning I woke up to one response to my status, contradicting what I had posted and telling me that obviously we are not better than this, because if we were, we wouldn't have had the two candidates that we ended up with.

While I agree that we could have gotten better candidates, as I have not wanted either of them to become President since this race began, I still have to stick to my original statement.

We are better than this.

As a woman, I am terrified to consider what having a president like Trump could be like. I am tired of feeling objectified and treated like a second-class citizen. I am tired of not being taken seriously, because it's "cute" when I get mad, and not receiving recognition at work for the same job, or having to work twice as hard for something that a male colleague gets handed to them. I am tired of being afraid to live alone or walk the streets at night, because I am female and that is the only reason someone needs to attack or rape me. I am tired of being told that I am being "pushy" or "bossy" when I'm trying to get something done, when those phrases wouldn't be as likely to be used to describe a man. I am tired of being expected to act a certain way because I'm female.

As a mother, it scares the crap out of me to be raising my children during a time when the leader of our country, who so many people look up to, ran his campaign based on prejudice and hate and just being a bully. We teach our children to be accepting of others' differences, and to not judge and to be kind, yet the man who they will grow up watching lead our country exemplifies none of those qualities.

As a friend and human being I am scared to consider how his presidency could affect the progress we've made towards equal rights. It is 2016 and we have come so far, how did a man who was openly endorsed by the KKK, and who has advocated violence get voted into office?

It's terrifying to think of what could happen in the next four to eight years, and I spent a good amount of time last night crying and thinking about it. We can't lose hope though.

We are better than this.

Yes, Trump may be our new president, but we are in charge of how we react..

As Martin Luther King Jr. said "Hate cannot drive out hate, only love can do that." If we are trying to combat Trump, who built his campaign around hate, rioting against him, burning flags, and inciting violence doesn't make us any better.

We need to stop living our lives centered around fear and hatred.

We don't know how the next four to eight years will pan out. We can hope for the best or expect the worst, but we can't see the future, and we have no control over it.

What we do know is that we are still alive, and we still have the same passions and beliefs that we had yesterday. We can still work together and build each other up and make things happen in our local communities. We can spread love and kindness to our fellow man. We can react to what happened and riot and spread hatred, or we can act to do our part in making the world a better place. 

We may not currently have the leader we wanted and the leader we wanted may not have even been running in this election, but we can take the opportunity to rise up and become the leaders that we need to lead the future forward.

We can't just sit around and accept how the world is and not move forward because we are afraid to get outside of our comfort zones. When people come together and support each other, we can do amazing things, and I think it's finally time that we start owning this power and creating the world that we want our children to live in.

We are better than this. 

Documentary of the Week: Half the Sky

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I recently watched a two part documentary series titled Half the Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide. This documentary is based on a bestselling book of the same name, written by Pulitzer Prize-winning journalists Nicholas D. Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn. I have not yet read the book, although it is now on my list of books to read, but I thought that the movie was amazing. Half the Sky discusses the oppressive circumstances that a huge number of women face worldwide, and shows ways in which some of these women are overcoming them. A-list celebrities, including Meg Ryan and America Ferrera, travel with Nicholas Kristof to countries where some of these oppressive conditions, such as forced prostitution, gender-based violence, and sex trafficking, are most prevalent. Watching this documentary, for me, was both heartbreaking and inspirational, and it really opened my eyes to some of the issues that women and girls face throughout the world, that aren't always as publicized, and seem oftentimes to be hidden, or hushed up. I am truly inspired by how these strong women are able to overcome such terrible experiences and use them to grow stronger and to help others. If you are interested in watching Half the Sky (which I would highly recommend), you can stream it on Netflix, as well as buying it on iTunes. For more information on the Half the Sky Movement, you can follow the link here.

~Hannah ♥