I’m so glad that it is over at least for right now. I know lawsuits have been filed and nothing is official until someone is sworn in on January 20th. In all my years of voting I’ve never seen so much animosity between people surrounding an election. Democrats mad a Republicans. Republicans mad at Democrats. Independents mad at this side. This side mad at Independents. I think the whole lot of them are all fools.

So when people ask me where I stand, my simple answer is…..I stand where I’ve always stood, and that is on my own principles. I’ve never tied my life to a republican or a democrat. As a black man living in the United States I’d truly like to know a time period where my life was made better by either side. I grew up in a crime filled neighborhood. I didn’t choose to grow up there but that was where I was. That was my life. I don’t remember any democrats or republicans coming to lift me up by the bootstraps. I do remember being labeled as a poor welfare child by most people who didn’t even know me but labeled me as that simply because of the neighborhood I lived in. So I find it rather ironic that during the crack epidemic which affected black people disproportionately. Those black people were labeled criminals and thrown in prison. They were labeled lazy and all they want is for the government to take care of them. But right now, the opioid crisis is affecting white people, and suddenly these people need help. They aren’t labeled criminals. They aren’t thrown in prison. Millions of people have lost their jobs due to the pandemic. At one point they were making more money with the stimulus benefit than they were actually working, yet no one labeled them as lazy. They weren’t labeled as just looking for a handout.

Where do I stand? I stand no different than where I stood a few years back. Some people refuse to acknowledge that this country is not equal for all people. There is systemic racism that is alive in every sector of this country. But I reuse to allow how someone else feels about me stop me from doing what I need to do.

Where do I stand? I stand where I’ve always stood and that is doing what’s best for me and my family regardless of what political side is running the house, the senate and is the president. I’ve seen bad things when Bush was in office, when Clinton was in office, when a different Bush was in office, when Obama was in office, and when Trump was office. So if things have happened when both democrats and republicans have run our country why would I be rooting for one side over the other.

As it is my constitutional right, I vote each and every time during local and national elections. But I don’t wait for the politicians to tell me what my life should be. I don’t need a politician to tell me that. These politicians aren’t in my home. They aren’t sitting with me as I work to take care of my family. I have positioned myself along with the help of my family to make sure that we can take care of ourselves regardless of who sits in the oval office.

So where do I stand? I stand rooted in my faith and holding firm to the principles that have been instilled in me. My faith and my principles have carried me through 40+ years of life. The good, the bad, and the ugly that life has thrown at me. When something works, you keep on working it.

KTR

I got none of that.

What I got instead was something that is hard for me to describe. There was bullying, name calling, over talking, rudeness, childlike behavior and the list goes on. It was embarrassing and left me feeling like we are really in trouble. I don’t care what side of the aisle you claim–I really don’t. What I saw last night was nothing more than a child trying to be heard and an old man trying to be heard. You can swap them out anyway you want. One struggled to make his point and one did an outstanding job in showing he has no point. Biden gets points for attempting to answer the questions from the moderator. Trump gets points for continuing to be exactly who he has always been. They howled at each other, snapped at each other, and claimed the other had no idea what they were talking about. But they didn’t actually debate anything.

There was no debate winner last night I don’t care what the polls show. The winner should have been the American people. We should have clearly seen someone who cared about what we want. How we feel. Biden may have come the closest to showing that but I have serious questions about him and his health. There were several times where he mumbled over his words;, forget what he was saying and repeated himself; lost his thought in the middle of his thought; and really made me ask if he is healthy enough to even handle the demanding job of being the President. Then there is Trump. I know who that man is, I know what that man stands for. He won’t let you not know because he tweets it enough, he says it enough, even when he isn’t asked the question. But what really stood out to me is the fact that when asked to directly denounce white supremacist, the President of the United States, said “Stand Back and Stand By”.

POTUS, the leader of the free world, said “Stand Back and Stand By”. As a black man, this didn’t come as a surprise to me, because I’ve always known that the President Trump does not care for black people, no matter how many times he says, “I’ve done more for black people than anyone except maybe George Washington”. But to hear him say “Stand back and Stand By” it confirmed that he truly does not care about me, my wife, my children, my friends, my community.

I turned off the debate as they were putting up the polls. I didn’t need to read them to know what they were going to say. I think they needed to add one more category.

Despicable.

I’m sure that number would have been higher than 69%.