Live Now:: Jacksonville vs Minnesota Live
Live Now:: Jacksonville vs Minnesota Live
It’s funny how an election changes situations.
Many of you have been uncharacteristically quiet over the last couple of days, or maybe Facebook’s algorithm gods are just sparing my sanity. Either way, I can’t tell you how much I appreciate the silence right now. Crickets all over.
Unfortunately, posts from some of you popped up all through Election Day/ Week, when President-Elect Joe Biden pulled ahead of Donald Trump in those crucial swing states. You started to plead with everyone to suddenly get along and sing “Kumbaya.” We’re all Americans and human beings, you remind us, so we shouldn’t hate those whose opinions differ from ours.
In general, I agree, but your patronizing tone and lack of apparent joy over the new day dawning reveal where your sympathies lie. You voted for Trump, the antithesis of the kind of person you tell us to be. Your hypocrisy is showing, and it’s a terrible look.
By trying to dash hard-won joy with counter-programming posts, you’ve lost the right to expect civility going forward.
Whre are your calls for love and mercy when police across the U.S. slaughter Black and Brown people? Or when Trump fanned the flames of racism across the country by openly endorsing white supremacy?
Where were you when James Fields Jr. drove his car into a crowd of anti-racism protestors in Charlottesville, Virginia, and killed Heather Heyer?
Where were your calls for love and mercy when Kyle Rittenhouse gunned down two Black Lives Matter protestors in Kenosha, Wisconsin?
Did you call for unity when LGBTQ gains were being chipped away? Or when children were locked up in cages? Or when women’s reproductive rights are questioned?
We don’t need long memories to recall when you insisted on countering “Black Lives Matter” with “All Lives Matter.” You know the story. It’s been on repeat during the last four years, Black people murdered by racists and trigger-happy police. You’ve heard the names George Floyd, Philando Castile, Stephon Clark, Breonna Taylor, and Ahmaud Arbery. Where was your empathy for them?
So spare us the hypocrisy and the belated calls for peace, love, and understanding. What we need from you right now is silence. It’s still golden. Let us have our loud moment.
To Trump supporters who wonder why millions have temporarily suspended social distancing to celebrate together in the streets across the U.S., what took you so long to care about the Covid-19 pandemic?
It would have been nice to see some of that concern when you endangered our lives by mocking science and refusing to wear masks in public unless they could double as “MAGA” propaganda. Have you noticed that as people celebrate, they are wearing masks? Unlike you, they really do care about the well-being of their neighbors.
For the last four years, you’ve been scolding protestors. You’ve insisted we respect the president and give him a chance, suggesting our patriotism depended on an unwavering loyalty to him. Now it’s time for you to practice what you’ve been preaching. But you won’t; you didn’t during Barack Obama’s presidency.
I’ve learned to expect as little as possible from you, but as I cry tears of joy and exhale again after holding my breath for four long years, I’m going to need you to stand back and stand down.
By voting to give Trump another four years to spread his message of divide and conquer, you have forfeited any credibility you once may have had. By trying to dash hard-won joy with counter-programming posts, you’ve lost the right to expect civility going forward.
If anyone needs to hear from you, it’eliver a message from all of us who are thrilled he’ll soon be gone:Concede and get out of the way.
