Sunday, November 20, 2016

Who is We?


We the people have spoken. But who is we?

It was one or the other but not both: loud and clear. Hillary Clinton has, as of the latest count, a popular vote lead of over 1,300,000 and growing towards 2 million. If out of those she got 70,000 more in Pennsylvania, 30,000 more in Wisconsin and 12,000 more as of the current count in as yet not called Michigan, she could have been the leading contender towards Presidency. But even then, just the fact that it would have been a slim electoral margin would effectively be a loss for her in a sense, given how various adjectives attached to candidate Donald Trump did not budge the votes in his favor.

As President elect Trump's America is a clear winner in terms of land mass if not the population mass, Clinton's America needs to keep an open mind and give room and space for change. Stock market is a ruthless barometer for leading sentiment, and while in the hours following the stunning and improbable victory the stock futures indicated a precipitous drop, it has been more than a week now and cautious optimism is back.

Let the change begin and if the changed winds do not bring a real change to the people who voted for change, then the next wave of change will soon be at hand in four years time. Maybe it is true some of the jobs are forever lost due to technology, trade and environmental concerns but maybe there could be ways to help the hurting. Maybe it is true America is going to be ever more diverse and unlike what it was 50 years ago, but maybe there can be ways to ease the concerns and the sense of belonging to the majority populations. Maybe it is true law abiding immigrants who have come illegally in pursuit of the American dream give as much as they get, but maybe there is still a way to get tough and prevent crimes from offenders who cross over illegally. Maybe it is true not associating a religion to terrorism prevents a generalized brush to paint a huge human population around the world, but maybe there is also the other side to be able to acknowledge and understand the root causes of so much of strife around the world.