Sign of Peace

It is a necessity

After weeks of polls predicting Hillary Clinton would win by a landslide, much of the country is still in shock after Donald Trump’s victory.

Some people are expressing that shock with anger and protest and general unrest in major cities around the United States, including Chicago.

But, as government teacher Sharon Smogor explains, it’s important to recognize that people need to not only realize that the Constitution requires them to come to terms with the results and move forward.

“So the voters chose and some voters are happy and others are not happy,” Smogor said. “But we have to just learn to accept the results of the elections.”

Even though only a small number of Carmel students voted in this election, a large number of students are voicing opinions leading to social media debates that never end and snarky or nasty real life interactions.

Not only is that sort of behavior futile, Smogor pointed out that it is in direct opposition to the school’s mission.

“We are called to be grateful stewards,” Smogor said. “We have so many blessings in this country, and part of it is our liberty and freedom, so we have to use that, we have to use our voice to make a difference.”

Write your congressman or senator and tell them what you think.

— History and government teacher Jack Waddle

Looking back

The country has been torn between two presidential candidates before. Smogor explained how 1968’s election can provide an insight to how this election will play out. At that time, Republican Richard Nixon won by a narrow margin and the country was angry.

“The country had to come together behind President Nixon and a lot of people really didn’t do that,” Smogor said. “But we survived, we moved on. The transition of one president to the next was as peaceful as it could be.”

A more similar and more recent example came sixteen years ago when Democrat Al Gore also won the popular vote, but not the presidency. Though there were angry words and even official ballot recounts, the ultimate transition from Bill Clinton’s presidency to George W. Bush’s presidency was uneventful.

“People who didn’t or don’t understand the electoral college system,” government teacher Jack Waddle said. “are naturally going to be more upset when they realize that the person who a plurality of this country chose to be President ended up losing the election,”

Moving forward

Right now, though, the majority of the people who are angry don’t know that previous transitions of power have been peaceful and the country survived–or they just don’t care. They are caught up in the bitter and often angry messages and images from the campaign.

Waddle encourages students to continue to civilly fight for what they believe in, even if Trump doesn’t agree.

“In the meantime, write your congressman or senator, and tell them what you think,” Waddle said. “These people have to run for reelection. They care what their constituents think.

Smogor said that Trump has the task of uniting those pitted against each other.

“Mr. Trump is going to have to realize that he doesn’t just represent angry white men and women,” Smogor said. “He is the face of the United States to the rest of the world and he has a huge responsibility to respect the dignity of that office. If he does that, we’ll survive this.”