Thankful

There's been a lot of negativity in our country during this election cycle and now during the start of this presidency. And let's face it, the negativity has just been more publicized, it's not new.

It's been with us forever.

It's plagued us.

We've plagued ourselves.

But it's time to put that behind us.

Not forget.

Not at all. There's been far too much forgetting in this country. Far too much.

But it's time for us to turn that negativity into growth. It's time for us to use it. Because if we don't, then we're just going to let it destroy us. And I don't plan on letting that happen, at least not without a fight.

And it seems like there are a lot of other people out there that think the same thing. And that gives me hope. A lot of it. Because it reminds me at a time when everyday brings more and more vulnerability, that the beautiful ideas our country is supposed to stand for are important priorities for so many of the people that stand beside me.

It's nice to know that as powerful as the word "racist" is, the word "resist" eclipses it's power. It's bolstering to know that as intimidating as the word "sexist" is, the word "persist" is going to define this time in history much, much more. We've turned words that were spat out with condescension and hate into a rallying cry that we shouted from rooftops.

One by one, I saw my American brothers and sisters become "nasty women" and "bad hombres". One by one I saw people, of all colors, all creeds, all genders and identities embrace each other and say, "you're safe", "I'll fight for you" and "love trumps hate".

I saw people join hands with each other. I saw people hit the streets in droves. I saw people standing up for themselves and standing up for the people around them. And that's something to have pride in. That's something to remember when the negativity and hate is weighing us down and making it hard to hold your head up.

#blacklivesmatter

#NoBanNoWall

#NoH8

#NoDAPL

These ideas have ensconced us. They've immersed. They make me glad for the concept of hashtags.

Climate Change Matters

Science is Not a Conspiracy

The Affordable Care Act

The EPA

The Department of Education

These issues and areas have become priorities. They've stopped being punchlines in a political agenda and have started to turn into pieces of our lives.

And you know what, they should be.

It's awesome to just go about everyday and get our Starbucks and go to work, pin items on Pinterest, heat up leftovers and go on Facebook to share pictures of our kids or pets or dinner. That's great.

But that's a life half-lived.

Our planet needs to be important to us.

Our children's education (whether we have them or not) needs to be important to us.

Curing disease needs to be important to us.

Human rights, ours and those of every human, need to be important to us.

We need to stop judging each other.

We need to stop hating each other.

We need to realize that coming together and supporting each other is the only way to truly create something to be proud of.

Having a gold toilet? I'm sorry, that's not something to be proud of. That's not. Sure, working hard to be able to afford a gold toilet may make you proud but the toilet itself is just a toilet, whatever it's made of. Helping yourself or someone else get access to water, plumbing and proper sanitation -- that right there -- that is something to be proud of.

It's not honorable to lead an easy life.

It's not honorable to lead a selfish life.

And as I look around, no matter where I am -- in the real world or online -- I see honor in so many places. I see good, honorable people -- people so I'm proud to walk this land with -- standing up for themselves and standing up for their neighbors, saying...

"I matter."

"You matter."

"He matters."

"She matters."

"They matter."

I see people stopping and saying "this doesn't sound right", "I'm not sure about this", "this doesn't feel good".

Those words, that questioning, it's beautiful. Even if you thought that you would feel differently, if it turns out that you just can't bring yourself to hate people the way you're being asked to -- that's beautiful.

Please, see the beauty in that.

See that it's never too late to change your mind.

See that there is amazing power in the courage and bravery to change your mind, to change your heart.

Amidst my anger and fear, I'm beginning to be thankful. Thankful that God thought to put me on the earth during a time where I could witness this love bringing us together; this love and respect making us stand up and fight, for ourselves and for each other. I'm thankful that God has given me the chance to do what's right, to be actively involved in my life, to care about more than just my own, small piece of this place.

And I'm thankful that God has given me the chance to participate with and witness so many honorable people that I proudly call brother and sister.

Thank you all for giving me something to strive for...to give me something to aspire to.

Gray Gardens

Everyday I wake up in Donald Trump's America and prepare myself for the news. It takes all of my courage and backbone to move forward through my anxiety and depression and face the day. Being on the West Coast means that by the time I get up, our President has already done two, maybe three, heartbreaking and horrifying things.

I feel like I've got my own armor now. I put it on as soon as my foot hits the floor of the bedroom and I don't take it off until I'm back in bed at night.

The world looks different now. Being outside, things have changed. Everything looks grayer. Things seem bleaker. The air is colder.

The reality of living this life is so much worse than the awful I thought it would be. As soon as the tide turns, everything becomes desolate. I don't have to wait to see the gestapo in order to feel them coming.

This is an America that I never thought I'd live in but I realize now that was naive. I realize now that I was seeing the world through my own blinders, my own white privilege. Of course we wound up here, how could we not? The freedom that I've so easily taken for granted hasn't ever been given out to all of our people. And our own hypocrisy is coming for us now.

It's still not fair though. Not all of us deserve this fate. There are people who have been standing up for themselves and for others for lifetimes and the air is just as polluted for them as it is for me.

There's a part of me that knows the happiness I felt just last year is something that I'll never get back again. You can't reach this stage and go back, ever. Once you see this version of the world, you never come clean. And knowing that I could've, I should've, done more in my lifetime is something that I'll never forget.

I look around and things that are supposed to be green are gray. Skies that are supposed to be sunny, are overcast. Clouds that are supposed to be light are dark. Our world has become a gray garden. The colors on our TVs are so much brighter now than the ones outside.

In order to see the best of humanity we find we have to keep staring at screens, desperate to find voices as vivid as our own and hearts that still know the brilliance and beauty of color.

Black Lives Matter

Women's Rights are Human Rights

Today, I am Muslim

Science is Real

No Human is Illegal

Love is Love

Brown Lives Matter

No H8

Kindness is Everything

#NoBanNoWall

Climate Change is not a Conspiracy

Let Freedom Ring

Give Peace a Chance

New America

Everyday I watch as my country turns into Nazi Germany.

Say that I'm exaggerating. Say that I'm taking my dislike and distrust of Donald Trump to new heights. Say that I'm employing scary tactics.

None of that surprises me. And none of it stops my thoughts, either.

Why?

Because the same thoughts and feelings were told to those people in Nazi Germany that were watching in horror as Hitler took hold and destroyed their country.

Many would say that Germany still hasn't recovered from it.

Because no matter the state of things inside that now-unified country, the rest of the world still uses them as the ultimate warning. We still use them as an example for the absolute worst that can come out of the world. We still vilify them. We still recoil from their history. And we still have trust issues.

And now this is where we, in the US, are.

The country that has this as their Preamble to the Constitution...

We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.

...is now the country that has done all of this in the FIRST week of Trump's presidency.

• Lied about the size of his inaugural crowd...for days...as if that was important and deserved this time and concentration.
• Put in the executive order to repealed the Affordable Care Act without any alternative for the millions of Americans that will be without health insurance. 
• Put down the Women's March and dismissed the voices being heard there.
• Reinstated the Global Gag order for scientists and the EPA, trying to silence the voice of truth and keep educated people from sharing their knowledge.
• Issued an executive order to allow the construction of the Dakota Access Pipeline through the Standing Rock Reservation.
• Began funneling federal resources to build a wall on the border with Mexico. Not only is he instituting his isolationist agenda but the wall is now being paid for by American tax payer money and his only plan for getting the money back is to tax Mexican imports, that would essentially still mean the American taxpayers would be funding the wall. 
• During his first televised interview, said that he supported torture and believed in its effectiveness. This includes being specific about being pro-waterboarding.
• He also said in this interview that Chicago was worse than Afghanistan. That people were being killed right and left. And that if Chicago didn't do something about it, he'd "send in the Feds".
• In this same interview where he stated that Chicago was worse than Afghanistan, he also said that no place was worse than the Middle East. He said that people were being beheaded all the time there. Christians and even Muslims, all kinds of people, were having their heads chopped off all the time.
• Declared that Sanctuary Cities would not be tolerated, prompting Miami to be the first to fall to Trump's demands and instruct its police force to not protect illegal immigrants. 
• Declared war on the media.
• Threatened to publish a paper listing the names of illegal immigrants and the crimes they have "committed", taking an actual page out of the Nazi instruction manual. 
• Sent his VP to the March for Life, the first sitting VP to attend, and continuing to push the sentiment that this is a Pro-Life presidency.
• Continues to obsess over his incorrect belief that he won the popular vote (that he lost by over 3 million people) and insists that this voter fraud is due to illegal immigrants voting. Will continue to spend the government's time and resources research this, despite the fact that it doesn't matter. 
• Ban refuges and issuing visas to people from several Muslim-majority nations. 

And this is not a complete list. This is just the overview. 

This list is our country now. This is the New America.

Unless we stop it.