What transpired yesterday was despicable, but not surprising.   This was done by a group of people that are close minded.  There’s a difference between being ignorant and being close minded.  Being ignorant means, you don’t know something.  Being close minded means, you are choosing to be ignorant about something.  In this day of near unlimited information, we need to prioritize what we can and cannot be ignorant about.   We must be open minded and listen.  Otherwise, our ignorance will be our doom. 

I truly believe we need to be open minded and listen to the concerns people have.  Truly listen to them and their experience.  We are unique human beings with unique upbringings, experiences, and lenses in which we view the world.  But that involves reciprocity.  You have to be willing to let go of what you think you know and consider that you may not be correct.  It takes humility and it takes courage.  But it opens the door to wisdom.  

From everything I’ve read Biden won the popular vote.  If there were instances of voter manipulation it was not enough to overcome the number of votes that was received by Biden.   The string theory of ‘they used COVID19 to do mail in ballots, which resulted in fraud’ was not substantiated in the court of law even in instances where Republican judges appointed by Trump saw the evidence or lack thereof.  If you want to argue about passing legislation about ballot harvesting, I would be all for it.  If we want more voting personnel to count votes quicker, then it would require a raise in taxes and budget for these governmental departments to hire more people or pay them overtime.  Of course, if they requested this we would yell “socialism” and vehemently vote against it.   The argument that it never takes this long to count is accurate, but we’ve never had to deal with a global pandemic before.  

A pandemic that is still denied even as family members and friends are impacted.  A disease where the focus is on survival rate and not on pain and suffering and long-term effects that are perhaps unknown.  Not on the doctors and healthcare workers that have been battling this crap for months.  Thank God America has developed a vaccine for said disease, but with it has brought a logistic nightmare in its distribution.  Of course, if enough individuals aren’t close minded on vaccines to begin with.  

Yesterday may have been the most unifying event that has occurred in recent memory.  But it unified people against Trump.  So, if you’re going down with the ship that is your prerogative.  But just know people like him don’t age well in the annals of history.  It might be in your best interest to stop and be still for a few days.  Because nothing in this life is black and white.  Everything is as complex and complicated as the cells that make up the tiniest fibers of the universe.  And as individual human beings living for a short while on this planet; we better start looking through the world with that lens.  Because what if… and hear me out here… Trump didn’t actually win.  What if he called a blue ball a red ball over and over and over again until the psychologist points to you and asks, “what is the color of the ball?” and you instinctively say “Red”?  The ball is still blue despite what you now believe it to be.  

I’m worried about communism, socialism, and the rise of China just like you are.   I believe capitalism is still the best way forward.  But our capitalist economic system has become flawed.  The speed of technology and computing power allowed certain people to take advantage and rise to wealth, power, and influence in unprecedented, compounding efficiency.  The wage gap is growing exponentially.  The premise that private citizens can own stock and grow their own wealth is true for some, but the top 10% control 70% of the US total wealth and the top 1% control about 30%.  Now I’ve been trying to establish a personal development business to coach and mentor people that can “play the game” correctly and there’s certainly a balance between ownership of one’s life circumstances and being squeezed into desperation.  I don’t think people should ever take on a victim mentality, but I also believe that rising taxes, rising costs, rising healthcare costs, rising natural disasters, rising excuses from insurance companies as to why they won’t pay claims, and just overall greed has eroded the integrity of our economic system.   Maybe… just maybe… taxing people at higher rates that make over $400k per year isn’t such a bad thing.  Chase the profit.  And again, I understand how P&L analysis works.  I understand wages are the most expensive “liability” and every law that gets passed that raises the wage increases that bucket. But the wealthiest amongst us are not doing enough.  They could pay more taxes, they could donate more, they could stop fighting government institutions tooth and nail for everything that they are trying to accomplish.  They could stop paying lobbyists and lawyers to waste the taxpayer’s money in ridiculous arguments over petty and minuscule differences that benefit themselves. 

But we the people have got to stop the bickering and fighting.  As we fight, the rich get richer.  As we yell, the wealth gap grows.   As we type, corruption takes root.  Wealthy, government, lawyers, lobbyists, news channels and around and around we go!  News corporations are owned by the wealthiest among us.   They concentrate on the smallest percentage of negative news and pepper spray you over and over and over until you are shocked into clicking on the headline.  Then they show you an ad to monetize your attention.  You can’t become part of the solution and run for government office without funding from the rich.  We are not each other’s enemies, but make no mistake… we do have enemies. 

And those enemies were watching with glee yesterday.  They watched the America they hate have their capital building overtaken.  They watched a divided country’s hate spill over into animalistic and grotesque behavior.  You may have rooted for those individuals that stormed the capital building, but just know it was a devastatingly bad PR issue for the USA.  We are all connected by the internet and the world is watching.  While you yell at the idea of globalism at least you can acknowledge that we represent 330 million of 7.5 BILLION humans on the planet.  Therefore, if the opinions of said billions are directed to our 4.4% with a negative connotation then that may create some real problems for us in the future.  Are we to be the moral beacon of light, shining for all the world to see?  Or are we going to turn our backs on a world at one of the worst possible times in the history of humanity?  If your ego and testosterone infused anger leads us to believe we can just bomb our way out of this, it may behoove you to rethink that strategy.  The battle for the soul of the Earth isn’t found on a battlefield made up of grass, hills, and trees.  The battles now are found in who has the better hackers.  And I understand your proclivity to believe conspiracy theories and you believe there may be some validity to what is shared, but if there are hackers spreading this at an attempt to dilute our understanding of truth then you are eating out of the palm of our enemies’ hands.  We have to stay vigilant.  We have to be open minded.  And we have to stick together.  United we stand, divided we fall.  How many times can we get back up if we fall?   What are we willing to endure to continue this miracle of an experiment that has led to this incredible time of abundance for the human species?   You don’t need to get on a plane and fly across the world and give your life in the name of freedom.  You just need to open your mind, push down your ego, and listen to your fellow human.  You might be surprised to learn we are more alike than you were led to believe. 

-Bradley Bertoniere