Yes, you read that right.

I am celebrating the rise of this man who is the full embodiment of America’s shadow.

Why?

Because if we are ever going to move forward and evolve as a nation, we must look at all of the sh*t we’ve been denying the existence of for the last 100 years. And that is what Donald Trump embodies. Without him, we wouldn’t be forced to acknowledge the cancer that has been present in the belly of our nation for centuries.

Racism, hate, greed.

America is not the greatest country in the world because we try to pretend as though we didn’t rise to power fueled by these very things. Racism has been alive and well in America since the Civil War ended and anyone who wasn’t aware of that before Charlottesville hasn’t been paying attention.

Acknowledging the existence of something doesn’t mean we condone it. Let’s remember that.

However, we must acknowledge a problem exists if we hope to find a solution for it. Taking down Confederate monuments, flags, and renaming parks is not the answer. That’s just putting a Band-Aid on a bullet wound. Taking down the icons of a group of people who are ensnared in hate, fear, and pain is akin to poking a dragon with a stick. All it’s going to do is ignite the fires that have been smoldering under the surface since America was born.

We have to stop pretending this doesn’t exist. We have to stop pretending the Mayflower landed in Plymouth to a peaceful, welcoming committee of Native Americans who then threw them a Thanksgiving bash.

We have to stop pretending we didn’t slaughter millions of people as we took their land to become America. We have to stop pretending that we didn’t build this country, including the White House, on the backs of slave labor. We have to stop pretending that just because Lincoln handed Lee his ass in the Civil War that the entire South stopped believing they have a right to own slaves.

I apologize if it sounds harsh, but this is the truth of the matter and the time for sugar coating words has long passed. We need to get our collective-ass together, America.

If we are ever going to heal, we have to admit the true history we’ve been denying. I will be the one to say what no one else will say because I love my country. I have seen firsthand the power and greatness of the citizens of America after September 11th and Hurricane Katrina. I know what we are capable of.

I also know that the light and beautiful side cannot exist without the darkness, and I am willing to stare the darkness of America in the face and call it by name. If you’re triggered right now and you feel as though you want to argue with me, I ask you to look at why. Dig into yourself and take a few breaths. Move past your emotional response and dig into what’s really going on.

Am I challenging a viewpoint that made you feel safe? Perhaps I am challenging something that you believe in as truth, which means you may want to lash out and attack me. That’s okay—it’s natural even. That’s what we do as humans when we are prisoners of our fear, anger, and pain.

When we feel threatened, we attack. When our truths are challenged, we attack the challenger.

If we could all stop fighting and seek to understand instead of just trying to force everyone around us to believe what we do, we might actually start to heal the great divide of our nation.

I saw a photo of a two-year-old in KKK robes. A two-year-old! 

And we wonder why we have so many white nationalists here—isn’t it obvious?

They are taught this hate. It’s not a choice when your parents are garbing you in the symbol of hate from the time you could walk.

We all have some crappy belief systems that were handed down to us by our well-intentioned parents and I believe that we can all learn new ways of thinking—but only if we are willing. However, no one is going to become willing to listen to their perceived enemy when they are screaming, yelling, or shouting.

“Let no man pull you so low as to hate him.” ~ Martin Luther King, Jr.  

We have to start listening to one another. We have to seek to understand the very person that embodies all that triggers us. If we stoop to hating these people who we don’t understand, are we really any different than they are?

Ouch.

The Great American solar eclipse is coming. Did you know it’s only viewable in totality from the U.S.?

Total solar eclipses have been ushering in massive and important changes and shifts in the system for centuries. We can’t bring change without knowing what we want to change; so, that is why I celebrate Trump.

Thanks to him we have a bright, shining spotlight on all the darkest skeletons in America’s closet.

And that means we can air them out and clean up shop to create an America that may actually be great rather than greedy, selfish, oppressive, and hateful.

~
Relephant bonus:

Author: Lindsay Carricarte
Image: Pixabay
Editor: Leah Sugerman
Copy Editor: Sara Kärpänen
Social Editor: Sara Kärpänen