Where Do We Go from Here? Healing for the Sake of Our Future

2024 wasn’t just an election. It was a brutal reminder of a nation tearing itself apart. If we’re being honest, we saw what we’re made of, and it’s not pretty. We’re a country that’s been taught—generation after generation—that if someone doesn’t look, think, or act like us, they’re the enemy. This election season laid bare that truth. For all our talk of freedom, we’re shackled to a legacy of control, division, and a history that’s trained us to value power over compassion.

This isn’t just about politicians or policies—it’s about all of us. It’s about a country conditioned to see differences as threats, taught by generations of leaders, history, and systems that profited from our division. But here’s the uncomfortable part: It’s not just those in power. It’s us. Every time we’ve dismissed someone’s perspective, mocked what we don’t understand, or avoided tough conversations because it’s easier, we’ve fed into this legacy.

Look at our history, and you’ll see a cycle of division that has defined us as much as any value we claim. The Civil War—620,000 Americans dead because we couldn’t agree on the basic value of human life and freedom for all. It set a precedent: if we can’t agree, we destroy each other from within. And this cycle didn’t end with the war. During the Civil Rights Movement, people fought, bled, and died for the right to exist as equals. The backlash was brutal, violent, a reminder that, even a hundred years after the Civil War, the battle for basic humanity was still raging.

Think of the Red Scare, when we were conditioned to see difference in thought as a threat to be crushed. Neighbors turned on neighbors. Lives were destroyed. We were taught to fear, taught that loyalty was obedience and conformity. This wasn’t about unity or strength; it was about control through division, teaching us that anyone who doesn’t fit our mold deserves punishment.

Our children are watching this same story unfold. They’re learning from us, from how quickly we dismiss others, how easily we cling to our own views and reject others without question. If we don’t confront this now, that’s the legacy we leave behind: a nation where winning is everything, even if it means losing ourselves.

Let’s be honest—this election had one true winner: corporations. Trump’s policies are a corporate dream—deregulation, lower taxes, a free pass to keep profiting without accountability. He’s not just a political victor; he’s the face of a machine that profits from our division. Every argument, every broken relationship, every act of distrust among us lets corporations tighten their grip while we look the other way.

And Kamala’s campaign was no different. For all her talk of making corporations pay their fair share, her campaign funneled over a billion dollars into the same media companies that thrive on keeping us divided. This wasn’t about building bridges; it was about winning at any cost. Both sides chose power over unity, and while we fought, corporations banked billions on our division.

We need to stop fooling ourselves. We are a nation raised on division, conditioned to hate, to see others as threats, to measure strength by how much we can take from someone else. And we’re teaching that to our children. We’re showing them that the only way to feel powerful is to make someone else feel weak. If we don’t break this cycle, we’re not just continuing division; we’re cementing it.

So here’s the choice we face, and it’s not about who’s in office. It’s about us. We have a chance to show our kids a different way. To teach them that strength comes from unity, not hate. That winning doesn’t have to mean crushing someone else. It’s time to stop letting politicians and corporations profit from our fighting. If we want a country worth inheriting, a future worth believing in, then the change starts here. It starts with us choosing to see others as people, not enemies. It’s about asking ourselves what kind of legacy we want to leave behind: one of fear and division or one of understanding and hope.

Because if we don’t change, this cycle will only grow stronger. And if we keep choosing this path, we’re guaranteeing that division becomes our legacy. This election should be a wake-up call. We have the power to break this cycle, to create a new story, a story our children can be proud of.

The choice is ours, and it starts now.