Thank you, Donald

I want to thank you, personally, for winning the election. No, I’m not being facetious, I really do want to thank you, on many levels. I did not vote for you. Oh, no, I’m one of those “nasty women” who thought experience and dedication were worth the office, but now I’m here to thank you.

            I want to thank you first, for showing me the true meaning of Privilege. I never felt threatened in my life by my government, my neighbors, my civil servants before you ran for the highest office in the country. I know I’m a woman, and that my work isn’t worth being paid equal to a man, but I was willing to look the other way on that one. I mean, I’m lucky I can go out and get a job, considering it was looked down upon if my Grandma had wanted to. I have never been racially profiled. I never got stopped and had to have my car inspected with the excuse of a burnt out taillight because of the color of my skin. I have never been harassed over what God I choose to worship. I’ve never had to defend my faith to someone who had no interest in learning about it, only to belittle and disparage it based on a small percentage of radicals. I was safely ensconced within my bubble of middle-class white suburbia, and then you came along.

            I had the luxury of being apolitical. Sure, I voted--once every 4 years—

and even then, I really only paid attention to the Presidential race. I never vetted my Senators, my Representatives. I kind of followed along party lines and just went with the flow. Local positions? I didn’t pay any attention, they didn’t seem to matter to me.  How big of an impact could they make?

            Doubt began to seep in when you secured the Republican nomination, but I was sure that common sense would prevail. Surely the masses would see that a reality TV personality was not a qualified candidate. I know that Reagan was an actor, but he had at least held a public office for years before being elected. You had no experience and a lot of money, but you claimed not to be of the establishment. Surely, voters would recognize that a business tycoon was the epitome of the establishment, even if he wasn’t a party pawn. Surely, it was obvious.

            November 8 came, as it got closer, I realized that I was making a mistake. Voting wasn’t enough. I was proud of Hillary, and the obstacles she overcame to get to the point she did. She was as cutthroat as any politician, but I didn’t fault her for her flaws, we all have them. My mistake was thinking that voting was enough. As I watched election results flood in for the first time in my entire life, I realized I should have worked for it. I work for everything else in my life, I need to work for my government, too.

            This is why I want to thank you, Donald. I want to thank you for bursting my bubble. I want to thank you for shaking my world. I want to thank you for showing me that being a passive supporter of the status quo is unacceptable. I had hope when you took that oath, the things you promised were like so many other campaign promises; chaff in the wind. I thought that maybe life would continue as uneventfully as it always has. These first days of your term have proven me wrong.

            Thank you, Mr. Trump, for showing me that there is a fire burning inside me for my country. Thank you for showing me that there is a passion for politics that I didn’t know existed. I have a lot to learn, civics class was a long time ago, but I am committed to educating myself. There are marches to go on, petitions that need to be signed, groups with more experience and knowledge than I have that need volunteers.

            You have destroyed my rose-colored glasses, and I once again thank you. You have united my sisters and brothers to rise up against injustice and moral bankruptcy. It is no longer acceptable to sit in the back seat and enjoy the view. I will no longer wait for someone else to take up the yoke and pound the pavement. It may start small, like phone calls to Senators, but it will grow. The marches and protests will continue, and they will get bigger and bigger. I know you can appreciate that, you like all things that are big, like your buildings. The resistance will take seed and will grow larger than your tallest skyscraper. Only this one will not have your name on it, it will have mine: America. We can agree on one thing; we need to make America great again, and we will do it by getting your dirty hands off of it.