My fiancee and I share a bedroom on the top floor of our Philadelphia home. As you can see, it is messy, unorganized, and bordering on disastrous. Empty bottles, garbage, and laundry (both clean and dirty) litter our floor so heavily that you can't notice that the room has not one, but two rugs. Messy rooms and disorganization have followed me my whole life, and I am used to it.
Last night, however, I climbed over my debris over and over again as I waded through the dark to check the changing results on my phone. The next morning, the results were in. The candidate I supported will not become the President.
To me, this is the end of the battle. The Presidential race is over, and we all seem stunned and deflated. It is easy to lose hope in light of this event, and to be completely honest, I have.
I want to make it perfectly clear that I am aware of the position of privilege that I am in. I am a white man with a full time job and a college degree. If anything, the result of this election has put me personally in a higher place of power. But I also want to be honest about the hopelessness I feel about this election. I do not want to be put on a pedestal above others, but that is what happens.
As I made a cup of coffee this morning at work, I typed in to Google, "What do we do now?"
With the election results in their infancy, not many leaders had answers. Still now, there are no clear answers. But I think one thing is clear. We need to gear up and prepare for the next stage of the fight for human rights, the fight against poverty, the fight for the health of our planet.
In this hopeless post-election situation, we feel so out of control. We wonder how we can foster a better and more understanding world without the support of our own government. But I have an idea of what I'm going to do.
I'm going to pick my trash up. I'm going to do my laundry, fold it neatly, and put it away. I am going to dust and vacuum. In a world without control, I have found what I can control, and if it makes me a better person, then I believe that it will make the world a better place.
I'm going to clean my room. What are you going to do?
