Unlike many of my Democrat friends, I did not celebrate the announcement that the Biden-Harris ticket had secured enough electoral votes to win the battle for the White House. Don’t get me wrong, I’m thrilled that they won. I really am. However, my enthusiasm was quickly tempered by the stark realization that many of my Republican friends will continue to embrace Trump’s habit of vilifying and de-humanizing anyone who dares oppose his divisive and hateful ways.
After Fox News and almost every major media outlet declared Biden the winner of the presidential election, my Facebook newsfeed became peppered with conspiracy theories and hate speech directed at the winning candidates. One local friend shared a post calling Joe Biden a pedophile. Another friend in mid-Missouri referred to Kamala Harris as an Uncle Tom. Several others repeated Trump’s baseless claim that election fraud is the reason Biden won.
First of all, it is outrageous to accuse someone of such a heinous act as child molestation based on a fringe-media smear campaign instead of actual evidence. Second, for a white man to call a Black woman an Uncle Tom is just as racist as calling her the n-word. And giving credence to Trump’s completely unfounded accusations of a rigged election is irresponsible and dangerous as it only fans the flames of hatred.
I will make a promise to you right here, right now. If Donald Trump, with all of the resources of the Federal government at his disposal, can find any actual evidence of a concerted effort by Democrats to rig the election, then I will never write about politics in this newspaper again. (If Democrats could rig an election, then explain how Mitch McConnell and Lindsey Graham got re-elected.) The reason so many of the mail-in votes were for Biden is because Trump has been telling his followers for months that mail-in balloting is not to be trusted. As a result, far fewer Republicans voted by mail. That’s not fraud. It’s a simple case of Trump’s strategy backfiring.
It is my sincere wish that we can find a way to come together as the United States, instead of drifting farther apart as Red vs Blue States. Only time will tell.
I am cautiously optimistic that things will slowly start to improve after January 20. The fact that America has elected its first Black president (twice) and now its first Black, Asian, and female vice-president gives me hope. It should also give hope to people of color and to every little girl in America.
I am the father of an Asian daughter. Though Tiana is not eligible to be president or vice-president due to the Constitutional requirement that she must be a natural-born citizen, I hope she can now see that opportunities for Asian-Americans and women are virtually limitless. I am, in fact, the parent of two people of color, and I hope that Tiana and her brother Truman can look beyond the racism and hatred that has been proudly displayed over the last four years and see that America really is a nation of immigrants like them.
I am also a grandparent to a beautiful, seven-week-old baby girl named Freya, the daughter of my oldest son Alex. Perhaps she will grow up to be president someday, though I hope by then she will not be the first woman to hold the highest office in the land. As Vice-President-elect Harris said, she may be the first woman to be on a winning presidential ticket, but she will not be the last. Kamala Harris has proven that America truly is a land of opportunity for everyone, not just white men.
I cried happy tears while watching the senator’s victory speech on television last Saturday night, not solely because her words were powerful and moving, but because I saw so many young girls and people of color in the crowd crying tears of pride and joy and optimism for a better future. If you consider yourself a patriot, if you claim to love this country of ours, then I hope you will reject the conspiracy theories, the hate, and the divisiveness propagated by Donald Trump over the last four years and embrace this chance to Make America Kind Again.
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