Now What?
As
I write this article the morning after the presidential election, I am stunned
and speechless. Throughout the campaign we were subjected to outrageous
comments, innuendo, disgusting video and audio clips that together made Donald
Trump look and sound like a reality TV star. We were challenged to try to
explain to our children how a presidential candidate could speak in such a vile
way and get away with essentially being a bully. We teach our children to rise
above such verbal abuse – “sticks and stones may break my bones…” – and we
expect that those running for office would represent the values and personality
that represent all Americans.
Now that Donald Trump has been
elected many pundits will try to explain how this could have happened and
Hillary Clinton will be doing a lot of soul searching as well. But what is
done, is done and we have to ask what this will mean for America going forward.
Will Donald Trump act on his bigotry
and try to expel Muslims from this country? Will he try to build a wall on the
US-Mexican border? Will he continue to make fun of people with disabilities,
treat women as play things and act as a bully? Or will he realize as he hinted
in his acceptance speech that he is the president for all Americans?
Our task moving forward is to be
ever vigilant. Those of us who were disgusted by him and his candidacy need to
strongly advocate for the values we hold dear. If we see attempts being made to
disenfranchise people then we need to speak out. If we see segments of our
society being treated unfairly we need to speak out. If we see attempts to pass
laws that reinforce hatred and xenophobia we need to speak out.
Wringing our hands and crying about
what our country is becoming is not enough. The Torah teaches us and our Jewish
tradition reinforces the idea that society should be based on justice and
equality for all. “Love your neighbor as you would be loved”. Justice starts
with us. Let’s move forward, chastened by the fact that we have a lot of work
to do to really “make America great again.”
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