Today is November 9, 2020. It’s been a few days since the election was called in favor of President-Elect Biden and Vice-President Elect Harris.
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
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