Speaker 1: Hey, everybody, it's Eric here with a post election mini episode.
Speaker 1: So this podcast is not a political podcast, nor does
Speaker 1: it intend to become a political podcast. But the day
Speaker 1: after a highly contentious election, there are a lot of
Speaker 1: people that I know who are struggling because I think
Speaker 1: that for a lot of people, this election is touching
Speaker 1: on way more than politics and and really gets at
Speaker 1: how do we treat people. You know, what's dignity, what's respect,
Speaker 1: what's equality? And I think those things are part of
Speaker 1: what we care about here on the show. I had
Speaker 1: a friend and call me today who is in a
Speaker 1: minority group, and, you know, just felt like that America
Speaker 1: hates him, which I think is an overstatement, but I
Speaker 1: can understand that feeling. I can see where you could
Speaker 1: interpret that. And so the perspective I have been from
Speaker 1: Ohio is what some of the people who um voted
Speaker 1: for Trump and what's going on there, Because I think
Speaker 1: that it's easy to jump to a conclusion that everybody
Speaker 1: who did that is racist and bigoted and all that
Speaker 1: because of some of the things that Donald Trump said
Speaker 1: it and I think that there were a lot of
Speaker 1: people who voted for him in spite of those things,
Speaker 1: not because of them. And if you've been to rural
Speaker 1: America and you've seen the devastation that's there, the jobs
Speaker 1: that are gone, the hollowed out downtowns, the meth epidemic,
Speaker 1: the heroin epidemic, thing after thing, those people do feel
Speaker 1: like they have been left behind, and I guess you
Speaker 1: could say in certain cases they have been. Now I
Speaker 1: think that the solution to that is misguided in a
Speaker 1: lot of cases. But if you've watched your whole town
Speaker 1: and way of life fall apart and there's someone saying
Speaker 1: they can fix it, sometimes you go for that, even
Speaker 1: if maybe the medicine seems a little bad. And so
Speaker 1: I think what I'm in essence trying to say is
Speaker 1: not everybody who voted for Trump is a racist and
Speaker 1: a bigot and and all those things. I think that's
Speaker 1: important to remember. So the other thing that I just
Speaker 1: want to talk about is, you know, the show is
Speaker 1: about which wolf do we feed? And I think we're
Speaker 1: we're at a real critical point for a lot of people,
Speaker 1: which wolf are they going to feed? Here in the
Speaker 1: loss of this election, which feels very pointed to certain people.
Speaker 1: And I think that for me, regardless of what circumstance
Speaker 1: I'm facing you know, in the beginning of the show,
Speaker 1: we talked about the parable about you know, you're gonna
Speaker 1: feed the wolf love and kindness and bravery, or you're
Speaker 1: gonna feed the wolf of hate or evil or fear.
Speaker 1: And so I think there's a real choice here to
Speaker 1: be made in what do we do with this? And
Speaker 1: I'm one of those people that is always in favor
Speaker 1: of action. We can't think our way into right action.
Speaker 1: Sometimes we have to act our way into right thinking.
Speaker 1: And so, if you're feeling deeply troubled by what happened,
Speaker 1: if you're feeling that this country isn't yours anymore, you
Speaker 1: don't believe in what we think it stands for, you're
Speaker 1: worried that there's that people who are minorities are feeling
Speaker 1: singled out or left out, help find a way to
Speaker 1: get involved. A couple of things right off the top
Speaker 1: of my head, and I posted some of these on
Speaker 1: the site Volunteer for Refugee Support Group. People that are
Speaker 1: coming into this country, they need to know that there
Speaker 1: are people here that welcome them and want them here
Speaker 1: and care about them. Support the a c l U
Speaker 1: or the Human Rights Committee. There's lots of groups to support,
Speaker 1: But I think that we want to work on kindness.
Speaker 1: You know, this is a classic serenity prayer moment. What
Speaker 1: can we change? What can't we change? We cannot change
Speaker 1: the results of the election, but we can change how
Speaker 1: we're going to respond to that, what we are personally
Speaker 1: going to do. How are we going to make the
Speaker 1: world a better place? You know? How are we going
Speaker 1: to attend our garden, the thing that is near us?
Speaker 1: And how are we going to work within ourselves with
Speaker 1: the emotions that we're facing. And do we really believe
Speaker 1: in things that, like um, hatred never ceases by hate.
Speaker 1: Do we really believe that. If so, this is the
Speaker 1: time that I think we all have to look inside
Speaker 1: and really make those things more than phrases and make
Speaker 1: them something that really matters, something that we take out
Speaker 1: into the world. So, again, none of this is intended
Speaker 1: to be political, but it's intended to take people who
Speaker 1: may feel like some of the basic things in our country,
Speaker 1: equality and dignity and respect are under attack, and remind
Speaker 1: us that there are some things that we can do
Speaker 1: and that giving into despair is never a good option.
Speaker 1: It is feeding the bad wolf. Same as thinking that
Speaker 1: everybody who voted differently. The we do is an idiot
Speaker 1: or a monster is feeding the bad wolf. Also, certainly
Speaker 1: there are some people in those demographics that that sound
Speaker 1: like that. But this is just an encouragement to keep
Speaker 1: your head up, try and make the world a better
Speaker 1: place as close to you as you can, and UM
Speaker 1: find other people who support you, and UM to care
Speaker 1: of yourself. And I guess that's all I got. Thanks
Speaker 1: by