No matter your political standpoint or beliefs, we are a nation torn apart. There is no denying that the morning after the chaos of this year’s presidential election there was uproar, a “doomsday” for America.

“I cried myself to sleep for a couple of nights straight.” GSA president Alice Tran said. “All of my social media accounts were flooded with tears and sorrow from friends in my day to day life to my international friends,” Tran speaks for the minorities that relate to discrimination issues posed within the past year.

“I had stayed up late in order to see the results for the presidential elections… and I can wholeheartedly say that I was emotionally distraught. I was devastated… I cried out of fear for my friends, my family, and my club members,” Tran added.

Since Election Day there has been much havoc. All along the west coast there are protests, some turning violent. Within a couple of hours of the final results on November 9th, suicide hotlines surged as hundreds of citizens called in breaking down about the election. According to CNN.com, spokeswoman Liz Eddy said in a release that “election” and “scared” was the top two words sent in texts to the Crisis Text Line within twenty four hours of the election.

GSA vice president and transgender senior Nico Westbrook said, “The morning after the elections, I had this mixture of anxiety, fear, and disgust sitting in my chest. It was really hard to convince myself to go to school that day… Trump/Pence’s elections represents half the nation’s total disregard/hatred for minority communities, and frankly, even though I was aware that I would very likely wake up to those results, I had held out a sliver of hope that people had been paying attention to the events of the last year and a half. ”

It is an unfortunate happening that the world has come to this, where it seems to appear that we are going backwards and becoming a divided people again.

We need to go forward; that is the only way we will better great nation. And the way to do that is to accept all people. We should not discriminate. We should not judge. We should not outcast. We as a collective people need to respect each and every individual no matter their gender, race, sexuality, or beliefs.