How to heal our country.

It's at times like this I remember what I taught the group of Boy Scouts about Citizenship in America. Simply this: "You show respect to the office. If the President enters a room I'm in, I stand up, I address them as Mister/Madam President, and I shake their hand if given the chance. Same goes for all elected officials. However, they do not control my thoughts and beliefs, and I am not bound to agree with them."

What makes this country great is our freedom of speech, the undeniable right to speak against our government without fear of reprimand or imprisonment. This is the country of rock and roll, the Boston Tea Party, Dr Martin Luther King, and countless other examples. We're not the sheep that blindly follow our chosen shepherd; we are the loud, obnoxious, in-your-face, culture of descent. We are not children, we are the teenagers constantly challenging authority.

Now am I in no way advocating violence, and none of us want another civil war. But there are nonviolent ways to protest. Don't sit here and cry that our country is going the wrong way. Do something about it. Swim upstream. Defy authority. Be a healer, not a whiner. Do what you know to be right, don't just sit back and lament how someone else is making it worse. Don't fight, don't threaten, don't do anything physical more than standing still in the way. In defiance. You want a better future for your children, then show them the right way. Your actions speak just as loud as your words, and the wrong actions can drown out the even the purest message.

Respect, with limits. Follow, without being a follower. Live, and make your life one worthy of being remembered. And remember, laughter is the best medicine... so put a smile on your face. And rnever forget, this country has survived worse, and will continue to survive. Don't sign it's death warrant just because you lost one electoral battle.

Update

After having my Facebook feed flooded with stories of people calling off work, and colleges canceling classes or holding organized "cry-ins" to allow people to cope with Trump winning, I wrote the following open letter:

Ok, I sympathize with all of you. Really. First your party hijacks your votes for Bernie and forces a bad choice like Hilary on you. Then when you finally reconcile that and accept her, then the country goes picks what the media and late night shows clearly paint as the greater of two evils.

So you're upset, you're scared for your future, and the future of your country. Those are all good things. But throwing a temper tantrum, and sitting around crying about it does no good. That's the exact attitude you tried to squash from the other side crying that Obama was a communist giving their hard earned money to anyone with a hand out too lazy to work. Now you're actions are just as bad, and just as wrong as theirs.

Continue to protest, fight for equality across all races, genders, sexual orientations, and whatever else. But stop the melodrama and act like the adults you're supposed to be. And the next time you "just can't even", think of the example you are showing the kids. Do you want them to just throw their hands up and cry when they don't get their way, or do you want to teach them how to lead by example and treat everyone, including the people who vote for your sworn enemy, with kindness, compassion, and tolerance. You kept preaching Love Trumps Hate, now get out and prove it.