Like most of you, the outcome of the election appalls me. But now is not the time to wallow in sadness, or to become abusive towards Trump voters. That sort of treatment may well be part of why they voted how they did, and will only escalate violence.
It is time to recommit to kindness. I've struggled with that this week. I've been in this funk, with confused, depressive thoughts about my past. It made me say some reprehensibly hurtful things to someone close to me, so I am in no position to hold myself up as an example to anybody else.
Trump winning was a wake up call. I don't have even another minute of my life to waste being that way. Not with an avatar of cruelty in control of the most powerful nation on Earth, with both congress and the senate packed with his supporters.
Now is the time to look for whoever you know whose heart is not polluted, and organize. Eyes and ears open! Share information! Be vigilant, always ready to intervene if you see beatings, harassment, vandalism, etc. If you see a problem, it's your problem to do something about. Ideally with friends, as there is safety in numbers.
I am emphatically not advocating violence. These days smartphones make it very easy to document wrongdoing. Call the cops first, although it's hard to say how much help they will be at this point. It may come down to the actions of right thinking individual citizens.
Think of how many Jews were spared the ovens during WW2 because of the daring actions of just a few conscientious dissenters. Now imagine if it had been a hundred people, or a thousand. Are there not at least that many Americans left with a clean, brave heart?
I am ready to throw my body on the gears of the machine which Trump is now in control of. I take personal responsibility for the safety of people around me which Trump's supporters habitually target, but also for the safety of those who may be targeted because they voted for him.
I fully rebuke and condemn cruelty, which is the emotional form of entropy, the enemy of all living things. You can't fight cruelty with more cruelty, you only increase the amount of it in the world if you do that. What you can do is refuse to hurt others, and refuse to stand by and allow others to be hurt, even knowing it may endanger you.
In the past I have been scornful of other people on the basis of religion. This, too, is something I will set aside. Right now I am open to collaboration with absolutely anybody whose goal is to disrupt violence, harassment and cruelty inspired by Trump's rise to power. I do not care what makes them want to do the right thing, only that they want to do it.
We still have the power. That never changed. We are America. So are the confused, lost, angry people out there beating the tar out of each other, but you and I don't have to allow that. Now is the time, more than ever before, to set aside old hatreds.
There was never a time in a history of our nation without them, after all. America has always been a disjointed, constantly quarreling patchwork of different personalities and values, a ramshackle union of constituent parts which somehow worked better together...like any family.
That's normal. It's the most American thing in the world that we are free to argue over any issue with each another, so long as it doesn't pick the other fellow's pocket, nor break his leg. What isn't normal is group beatings, death threats and other behavior you wouldn't tolerate between family members.
America has been poisoned with insanity, fear and anger. It's up to us to be the cure, before innocent lives are claimed. We must not seek refuge, asking "who will save me from this?" We must all save one another from it.