We the people

There is no accounting for where third graders get their information or how it morphs in their minds to be real.  

Yesterday in my reading group, one of the boys said that he'd heard if Trump won, everyone who is brown would have to go back to their country.  Most of the children in the room were brown, including the speaker.  They looked at each other wide eyed, then they looked at me.  One boy held up his hand and said, "But I'm brown."

I said, "That's not going to happen!"

They wanted to know how I knew.

I said, "Because we won't let it."

After school, since students from all three classes had been in my room at the time, the third grade teachers discussed.  I had been so knocked sideways by the fear in their wide brown eyes that I hadn't been too eloquent.  We decided that our united front would be to explain that the government was bigger than one person.  It doesn't matter who the president is, they can't unilaterally make huge changes.

In high school, Mr. Coates, my government teacher, pointed out to us that usually the president was from one party and the majority in Congress was from another.  Sometimes they were from the same party but then voters would change it in the midterms.  

Our government is meant to be messy.  It's meant to be slow.  It's meant to keep any person or group from having too much power.

I choose to believe in that idea.  I choose optimism and hope.  I choose to believe that whatever happens in this unusual election in this upside down year, the majority of the people will peacefully accept the outcome.  There will be disappointment because about half the country feels at odds with the other half politically, but I choose to trust that most of us will get on with life anyway.  

When it comes down to it, red or blue, we are all we've got.