After any presidential election, the supporters of the candidate who lost are not happy. In fact, in today's age they go to social media and air their opinions over...and over...and over. And I believe that it can be good for people to do so, it can be cathartic. I mean, I have a blog that I write to do just that very thing, and I am about to do it some more.
As Generation X adults, we often complain about the new generation, the Millennials, it is a rite of passage, I believe for the older generation to complain about the younger generations. We talk about how Millennials aren't as tough as we were or are. We talk about how they complain about opinions different from their own. We talk about their "safe spaces" on college campuses and how pathetic it is. Yesterday, I heard and read about college professors allowing students to skip exams or miss assignments or miss school because they were so emotionally distraught they could not function.
Gen X has done a great job in allowing the type of behavior in Millennials that we complain that they have.
I do understand the disappointment when your candidate, someone you were so vested in loses. It hurts.
And because of Mr. Trumps rhetoric, I do understand why minorities or Muslims would have some concerns, maybe even huge concerns over his taking office.
But that's not who I am around.
That's not who I read extreme posts from on Facebook.
They are, for the most part, middle class white people.
If Donald Trump tries to impose some of his extreme comments, he has to deal with Congress and ultimately the Supreme Court and if he even tries, he will be the first President in my lifetime to try and fulfill his promises.
I read where our "poor little girls" have lost all hope in this country and that we have set women's rights back 100 years. That the poor little girls are depressed.
I'm not a woman, I'm not a girl, but I do know that many, many women voted for Donald Trump.
I have a 12 year old daughter who is not distraught over the presidential election. She has an inflamed tendon and is out of sporting events for a month...that has caused her tears, not having Hillary Clinton lose the presidential election. She paid attention, she read and listened, she knows what Mrs. Clinton stood for and she understood what Mr. Trump said and did.
She has not lost hope.
She has an Aunt that had a heart transplant when she was two and has fought for her life every single day of that life.
She has a mother who donated a kidney to that Aunt.
She has a grandmother that takes care of her disabled sister many times during the week in another town.
She has a grandmother that continues to work and is a shining example to other people in her community.
She has another Aunt that works a 40+ hour job to help take care of her family.
And I don't know this for a fact, but I am willing to bet that none of them voted for Hillary Clinton.
I have a daughter and what do I tell her after this election? Work hard Maddie, dot every I, cross every T and do things that will make you successful, but understand that does not guarantee success. And Maddie, you are going to deal with hardships, some that will drop you to your knees, but you get up and go to work the next day. Life is hard, it is horribly unfair most days and for every day of happiness, you may experience sometimes more that are not full of happiness.
So, you don't whine, complain, call the world unfair (it is) and cuddle up in a fetal position.
You go to work.
My daughter lives in a different world than her great grandmothers and I have no doubt that she will see a woman President some day, but it wasn't this year and I think it says more about who the person was than what gender she is.
I fear for the future, but for different reasons.
We are teaching our children that it is okay when you don't get your way to quit, to sit in a corner and throw a fit and maybe, just maybe you can get a day off school or from taking a test.
But what do I know? Maybe I am just venting on social media about something I don't know anything about which would not make me much different from most of America.
