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This is the sixth in a series of essays by family/friends/the rest of the world about the election on November 2nd. If you'd like to add your own thoughts email them to writing@noahbrier.com
Being in Washington DC, during what could be called the biggest and most important election of my lifetime, has made this whole ordeal that much harder to stomach. I have sat down between classes today in complete shock and total confusion.
The thing that I absolutely cant wrap my mind around is idea that the things that I think are horrible and terrifying about the man we are calling our president and all the problems that occurred in his past presidency, are completely overlooked and fine with a huge number of my peers and fellow Americans. How is that possible? I may have, what some consider, liberal views on some of the issues of this election, but who doesn’t think that killing our soldiers for apparently no reason is not ok? Who thinks that its ok to not allow people to marry the people they love? How can it be that 2.8 million people don’t see that this man, and his administration, is a threat to our nation’s security? With this reelection I am terrified of the fact that we are just waiting to see all of our civil liberties along with everything our country stands for, completely fall to pieces.
My second concern is bigger than just this election. For me, the reelection of George W. Bush paints the US’s citizens in an awful light. What is it going to take for Americans to be both aware and educated to not make the same mistake twice? Unlike Bush I am going to get this colloquialism correct, fool me once shame on you, fool me twice shame on me. While that couldn’t ring more true this situation, what does it mean? Shame on the United States for making the decision they did, but that doesn’t make me feel any better. I can’t just point a finger and then relax knowing what could potentially happen to my country. I am completely dumbfounded. And what’s worse than just being upset, is that I am really not sure what I can do. Negative I know, but I have lost more faith in the decision-making skills of the people of the United States, than I even thought I had.
With all my confusion and shock, I have made a couple vows to myself. Number one, I can’t bare the weight of the mistake that has been made for the entirety of the next four years. Therefore I am willing to suspend my view of reality, and not think about this until January when the reelection comes to fruition! More than that, my second vow is to, for my own sanity; refrain from directly insulting the president. In my opinion, openly admitting that the president of my country is a complete imbecile only makes the situation worse. While not insulting him, I do however vow to continue to criticize the policies, decisions, and safety strategies implemented to “protect my freedom.�
Leah Rebecca Brier is a freshman at The George Washington University and a young woman that makes her brother proud when she writes something like this.