First of all, you should know that I have done no research on what I’m about to say and I’m exercising my right to free speech.  Please be kind. You should also know that I may use the word karma here, which once angered my pastor because as a Christian I guess I’m not supposed to invoke the word.  However, it’s always just the tiniest bit satisfying when a little bit of karma plays into a scenario, good or bad. For instance…

I’m driving the speed limit, in the right lane, when an obnoxious, very large (obviously making up for something) pick-up truck, runs right up behind me thinking they’re going to make me move faster.  Right. When they can’t take it any longer, they zip around to my left and speed off, only to be caught at the light.  In the longer line in the left lane with all the other speeders, while I slowly come to a stop several cars ahead of them.  Karma.  Happens all the time.

Human beings are funny, so many of us trying to beat the system, trying to make things faster and easier, in our myopic way, making everything better for “me” and my way of thinking life should be.  Never mind that the sign says limit for the betterment of the whole, if I can get away with it and go 10-15 miles an hour faster and be at work a whole 3 minutes earlier, well that’s my right.  Never mind that I’m going 40 in a school zone or dashing through a yellow/red light.  It’s all about me getting where I want to go when I want to get there because I’m right.

I believe that karma struck again this week, and it was all about the election.  Both sides screaming GET OUT AND VOTE!!  MAKE A PLAN!!  VOTE EARLY!!  Both sides believing the result would be their team who would get the most votes if people would just get out and vote. People who should have been exercising their right to vote all along, but now somehow, if the RIGHT group of people vote, everything will turn out the way we want.  And then karma rears it’s ugly head.  

Election day was Tuesday and the voter turnout was amazing.  It’s Thursday and we still aren’t sure who our next president will be.  The Xanax and beer are flowing freely, depending on who you talk to.  The election just verified what we’ve known for quite some time.  We are a nation divided.  And just as we were all encouraged, dare I say, challenged, to vote in any way, shape and form, now it looks like some are regretting this.  It didn’t turn out the way we thought.  It wasn’t the landslide in whatever direction we thought it would go.  Karma can be very humbling.

The election also showed us something else – that we are a diverse country with diverse people with diverse ways of thinking.  That’s what we want, right?  We want to embrace diversity, right?

“Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, The wretched refuse of your teeming shore. Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me, I lift my lamp beside the golden door!”

It just screams diversity.  We welcome those who are looking for freedoms, freedoms to think and speak, live, worship and VOTE the way they want.  We pride ourselves as being a nation of immigrants, a melting pot. But this is where karma raises its head, as embracing diversity means having to embrace all kinds of diversity, including our religious beliefs, our personal philosophies, our cultural bias.  It shows itself in how we vote, which is just fine, as long as it agrees with what I believe and think and if it doesn’t, then you’re a fool, an idiot, uneducated, uninformed, a racist, a snowflake a whiner.  There are so many insults to hurl. You’re diverse, you’ve exercised your right to vote, but you didn’t vote like me, so now I’m angry and I hate you.  How does this help anything?

Here’s the problem as I see it – remember, there is no research involved here.  Every four years, we make a big deal about a couple of human beings, each representing the culmination of all our hopes and dreams for this country.  Then most of us do our civic duty for one day and expect the winner to make things wonderful for us.  For ALL of us.  For this diverse country.  And when it doesn’t happen, we blame that ONE person.  Where do the rest of us fall in this equation?  We’re quick to blame and call names, but are we doing anything to make things better besides standing in a booth and filling in circles once in a while so we can complain afterwards?  Just asking.

Why not look at all of this as the opportunity it is.  We GET to vote for the candidates of our choice.  We get to watch the process and welcome someone who is WILLING to serve our country in this ridiculous way.  We get to continue our involvement by keeping track of legislation and letting our representatives know what we think.  We can actually make appointments and meet with them. We’re allowed to peacefully protest when we disagree with something. This doesn’t happen everywhere. 

We can use civility to speak to those who disagree with us and hope our enthusiasm for our point of view is catching instead of calling them names and alienating them.  And we’re allowed to agree to disagree.  I don’t have to agree with you to still care about or love you.  It’s just the right thing to do.  And because that karma thing, whether you believe in it or not, will come back to bite you otherwise.