Last night, while we as a nation elected Trump, we as a nation also collectively DDOS'd the Canadian immigration website, crashing it sometime in the late evening.
It's tempting, I'll admit. Turn away from the ugliness and get out dodge and go somewhere with less yelling. But I can't.
My citizenship bestows on me a great deal of freedom and responsibility.
I, along with my fellow citizens, am charged with being a standard bearer for the ideas of some 18th century hippies.
By heaven above, are their ideas beautiful. And, by heaven above, are their ideas hard to implement.
This country, unlike most on this blue planet, was not built on ethnic identity, shared history, or geographic tradition.
This country was built on ideas: ideas about democracy, freedom, liberty, and working with people you don't like.
Once upon a time we gave up on working with people we don't like, and the results lasted in a five year bloodbath.
I live in a city that was burned to the ground during that conflict and was reborn out of the ashes.
We have survived.
What happened last night did not reflect my opinions on the direction this country should go, but a lot of people disagree with me.
My citizenship mandates that I talk to them, work it out, empathize, educate, listen. If I run, I give up.
I am not running away from what I don't understand; my country requires better from me than that.