Where do we go from here?

There have been days when I've woken up and thought: This did not happen. THIS cannot be reality and days when I've thought: How do we live here, like this?

In a country that chose hate over love?

Fear over hope?

Division over unity?

One of Hillary's slogans was "Stronger Together" and I believe that's true.

I believe this writer gets it right when she says that Hillary Clinton's campaign was a campaign that attempted to look and move forward while others wanted to look to the past, to what people have lost.

Yes, jobs have declined in some industries like coal and steel. I'm from Pittsburgh, so I know all about what it's like for an industrial city to die, but, fortunately, I also know what it's like for a city to be reborn.

Pittsburgh is called a Renaissance city because there are jobs there. It's a great place to live and raise kids, and it's not covered in a cloud of smog like it once was.

We can't go back to the days of unrelenting pollution, unchecked discrimination, and civilized, normalized hate.

We can't tell our neighbors to "go back to where they came from" unless we plan to do that as well.

Many have noted that all of us came from somewhere. The only people who can even attempt to claim that this land is their land is Native Americans, and what have we done but taken that land away from them.

Donald Trump promised to "drain the swamp," but from where I'm sitting all I see is someone who is making the swamp viler and more nasty.

We can't do everything. We can't fight racism and oppression and resist everything and fight 24/7 without making a living and caring for ourselves. But we can control how we respond.

As Michelle Obama said, "When they go low, we go high."



I'll admit that there are times when I haven't felt like going high. When I didn't like being called bossy or the other b word or stupid by someone who couldn't form a grammatically correct sentence.

But what I see is that these people are insecure and insensitive. All they have is name calling, sometimes as a substitute for logic. Those of us who have ever taught freshman competition know that while people can be swayed by fear, you don't WIN with fear.

And what is winning? Winning is being Hillary Clinton, who could have gone lower but instead tried to inspire us to be the nation that is united not divided by class and race.

So what do I say to my misguided brother or sister who voted for Trump? I look to John Wesley, who said:



It was a quote that inspired Methodist Hillary Clinton. When people said she was a murderer, a criminal, and wanted to "lock her up" for the crime of daring to be a woman who dreamed and hoped for a better future for us all, she could have retired.

She was already a successful lawyer, senator, author, speaker, and Secretary of State, she didn't need to be president, but America needed a strong tough leader like Hillary Clinton who wanted to move us forward. We still need one.

The leader we are apparently about to get is not the leader we need. He will not bring back jobs to the miners in West Virginia or the industrial workers in Ohio. His agenda won't make anything better.

So where do we go from here? We don't wade in the swamp water to prove that we can. Yes, we can insult and hate and blame, but where does that take us? It doesn't make us stronger. It does no one good.

To move forward, we need to look to Hillary Clinton, one of the only winners in a sea of losers. She is what makes me proud to be an American.