Everything changed in the matter of a few hours, on November 9th: it marked the nation’s future of a new president. A president some thought would never even reach the gates of the White House. On this same day that government’s fate was determined, many people wept for Hillary Clinton.
It has been a while since the catastrophic turn events occurred, and for many Hillary supporters—like myself—have had time to heal and cope with the results.
I cried.
Families cried.
Friends cried.
Professors cried.
Democrats cried.
Republicans cried.
The election rocked the nation, leaving many people with tear-stained faces and puffy eyes not only the day the results were released but also the subsequent days after the election. You might wonder why people cried after hearing the results, especially since many of us probably never met “Hillz.” The tears weren’t because our side “lost” but what the loss represented. It is important to try to understand the messages, concerns, and voices behind these tears. What did those tears mean?
There are several reasons but I’ll focus on a few:
- We saw types of people we liked to believe were nonexistent. For some people this came as a shock that racists, misogynist, and homophobics actually exist in current day society. For me—reared in a conservative town in the South— I was not surprised. This new knowledge of the kind of people existing made us concerned with the nation’s future.
- We feared what Supreme Court rulings would look like if the Court becomes more conservative. We feared that having a Conservative President and Supreme Court in addition to a Conservative Congress would ignore issues and advancements concerning women’s rights/health care, healthcare system’s and scientific research’s funding, LGBT concerns, or racial problems in society.
- We felt blind sighted. The election eluded that Hillary had a 99.9% of winning. She had more celebrity support, more funding, and more experience. On the news, it seemed that Hillary would mop the floor with Trump. So, where did we go wrong? I remembered listening to my Priest’s sermon the Sunday following the election and she brought up an important point: we pick and choose what news will appear on our feeds or which news station we watch. This kind of tactic of blocking out what we don’t want to hear disadvantages us from having a nonbiased opinion.
- We were upset with votes thrown to the third-party candidate and written for Harambe. These votes could have supported Hillary immensely in swing states. That “what if” seemed to hurt a lot for many people.
Weeks have passed since the day many of us wept for Hillary Clinton. Although it is good to mourn, we as Hillary supporters and activists need to be ready to voice our concerns, detest injustice, and remember that this is still our nation that we want to make a better place. Policies might be implemented/removed but we cannot give up and must continue to fight for what we believe in. Although we might not have broken the glass ceiling on Novmber 9th, a women’s place is not only in the House and the Senate, but also the Oval Office. We can all make a change and difference but we should make sure to listen to each other.
Image Source: http://images.indianexpress.com/2016/11/election-protests-was_kuma759.jpg