{"id":4533,"date":"2016-11-18T09:49:16","date_gmt":"2016-11-18T14:49:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/wp.umpi.edu\/utimes\/?p=4533"},"modified":"2025-08-24T14:40:07","modified_gmt":"2025-08-24T18:40:07","slug":"jims-journal-the-2016-election","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp.umpi.edu\/utimes\/2016\/11\/18\/jims-journal-the-2016-election\/","title":{"rendered":"Jim’s Journal The 2016 Election"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Untitled-1\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Wow, after 16 months of campaigning the 2016 presidential election is finally over.\u00a0 When I listen to the voices of people around me, I hear fear and excitement; I hear sadness and happiness; I hear concern and hope.\u00a0 The feeling you have depends on your personal beliefs, who you voted for and what you want for the future.<\/p>\n

Although this election cycle provided us with many ups and downs, the current question may be where we go from here.\u00a0 Like it or not, Donald Trump will be our next president.\u00a0 Now it is time for us to come together as a country and try to work out our differences.\u00a0 How are we going to do this? \u00a0I have four words that may help.<\/p>\n

Compassion<\/u><\/strong> \u2013 No matter what side of the political spectrum we fall on, we have to have compassion.\u00a0 That means we can\u2019t rub in the fact that the candidate they supported lost.\u00a0 That means we can\u2019t call others stupid for whom they voted for.\u00a0 We can\u2019t attack one another because we have different belief systems.\u00a0 If we want to call ourselves inclusive, we have to be inclusive.\u00a0 That doesn\u2019t mean we have to agree with one another all of the time.\u00a0 I bet that most people have more in common than what separates them.\u00a0 We have to listen to one another, understand why others are hurting and comfort them.\u00a0 No one should be afraid to be a woman, a member of the LGBTQ community, a member of a particular religion or from a different part of the world.<\/p>\n

Civility<\/u><\/strong>–When I was growing up, my mother always told me to follow the Golden Rule.\u00a0 That rule simply stated is–\u201cDo unto others as you would have them do unto you.\u201d\u00a0 In other words, treat people the way you want to be treated.\u00a0 This means you have to be respectful and courteous.\u00a0 If you wouldn\u2019t want someone doing it to you, don\u2019t do it to them.\u00a0 If you wouldn\u2019t say something to someone in person, don\u2019t say it on social media.\u00a0 Consider the effects of your words and actions before you say or do them.\u00a0 The world has become a place that seems to believe \u201cDo unto others before they do it to you.\u201d\u00a0 We must be better than that.\u00a0 We have to be better than that.\u00a0 We are better than that.<\/p>\n

Diversity<\/u><\/strong>–We are all enriched when we live with, work with, go to school with and interact with people who are different than we are.\u00a0 I have heard it said many times that Maine is the whitest state in the union and we are not diverse.\u00a0 It is true that northern Maine is not very diverse racially, but this cannot be the only area we use to discover the richness of diversity.\u00a0 This election has shown us the diversity in our population: we are conservative, we are liberal, we are LGBTQ, we are Hispanic, we are white, we are black, we are French, we are English, we are for gun control, we are for the Second Amendment, but most of all we are AMERICAN.<\/p>\n

Activist<\/u><\/strong>–We must all stand up for what we believe in.\u00a0 In the USA, we have the right to free speech within certain limits, we have the right to assembly peaceably and we have a duty to help others.\u00a0 As you read this, I must ask that you remember the three words listed above.\u00a0 Standing up for your beliefs is important, but if you forget the items above, you are just pushing your agenda to the detriment of others.<\/p>\n

The future is an unknown. No one individual controls all of our lives.\u00a0 It is up to all of us, working together, to make the world a better place.<\/p>\n

Perhaps I am being an optimist, but I refuse to be the opposite.\u00a0 I hope all of you will join me.\u00a0 Find common ground, look for strength in our differences and build a better place.\u00a0 If we segregate ourselves based on how we voted or on our belief systems, we are all lost.\u00a0 We must build a community: one that is stronger than anyone can imagine, where we all show compassion for one another, where we treat everyone civilly, where we respect one another\u2019s diverse traits and where we can support and promote our beliefs without fear of reprisal.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Wow, after 16 months of campaigning the 2016 presidential election is finally over.\u00a0 When I listen to the voices of people around me, I hear fear and excitement; I hear sadness and happiness; I hear concern and hope.\u00a0 The feeling you have depends on your personal beliefs, who you voted for and what you want […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":96,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[7381],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4533","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-archives","et-doesnt-have-format-content","et_post_format-et-post-format-standard"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.umpi.edu\/utimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4533","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.umpi.edu\/utimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.umpi.edu\/utimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.umpi.edu\/utimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/96"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.umpi.edu\/utimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4533"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/wp.umpi.edu\/utimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4533\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8927,"href":"https:\/\/wp.umpi.edu\/utimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4533\/revisions\/8927"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.umpi.edu\/utimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4533"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.umpi.edu\/utimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4533"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.umpi.edu\/utimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4533"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}