Glancing through my Facebook feed from yesterday and today, I can only see political posts. They are quite different from the ones that I’ve seen this last year or so, condemning this candidate or the other. Now that America has chosen our next president, I see disgust, fear, and protest. The occasional pro Trump status seems out of place, even though it turns out that in this country they aren’t. They incur my irritation and brief anger (yesterday I almost threw my phone across the room after reading one), but the posts that irritate and worry me more are the ones that are explicitly hateful towards Republicans and this country for electing the orange man.

I get that you are angry and afraid. I am too. However, hate doesn’t do anything against hate. We should listen to Martin Luther King, Jr. who once said, “Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.” Don’t show your hate to those who voted red and/or who show you hate. We, as human beings, are better than that. Hating those who hate us only adds to the toxicity present in the world. Christ says we should love our enemies. It is a difficult thing to do. I, for one, don’t know if it’s possible for me to truly love those who hate and endanger those who I know and love. But I think setting aside our hatred and putting that energy into something else that needs to be done is a start.

Up until the election, various people kept saying that they would move to Canada (or the moon, in one case) if Trump won. Most of them were joking, but apparently, Canada’s immigration website got overloaded. Meaning that some are serious. If another country is potentially less dangerous for you and your family than in the US under this next presidency, then do whatever you think is best. But for the rest, please stay. It does not do to run away when there are things to be done.

I realized yesterday when I went to a housing event where we had a conversation about ending homelessness that while I felt like some part of the world ended, the world still exists and those in the world still have needs. And we can help them. I do not help people because I am Christian (that should never be the only reason). I help people because I am a person. I help people because love trumps hate.

I told my boyfriend a couple days ago that I try to avoid using the word trump, even as an action word because it reminds me of a certain gentleman. But now I realize that refusing to say “trump” is akin to saying “You  Know Who” instead of “Lord Voldemort.” Because as Hermione Granger reminds us, “Fear of a name increases fear of the thing itself” (Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone).

Light dispels darkness. LOVE TRUMPS HATE.