Armin Kargol

Professor of physics

[email protected]

Dear friends who voted for Trump,

With some of you I have been personal friends for many years and we know very well that we agree to disagree on various issues, but we like and respect each other very much. Some of you may be irritated with me for what you may think is the moaning and groaning of a sore loser, and you may want me to suck it up and move on after the election is over. And I will soon stop my political activism here, but I want you to understand one thing: this is not about a disagreement on political issues where one candidate loses, the other wins and then we move on, and, kumbaya, we are all fine again.

In this election, some boundaries that should have never been crossed were crossed by your candidate. He called people names, threatened them and belittled them in ways that I find repulsive. So it is not OK to say that it was just an election and now we move on. There is a bigger issue. You may ask: why do I care so much? I am a white male, a college professor, a naturalized US citizen, nobody attacked me, right? So here is my explanation. Several months ago, my wife and I were called “f—ing immigrants” in a public place by a stranger when he heard our accents. At the time, I dismissed it as an isolated incident committed by some ignorant guy.

But if that type of a person is elected the president of the United States, that changes the equation for me. I was not called a “f—ing gay” or a “f—ing Muslim” or a “Mexican rapist,” but I understand very well how these people feel. I felt the same way. And it is not about “hurt feelings.” It is a raw anger at being treated as a lesser human being because of your “otherness.” It’s a fear of who we are becoming and where the country is going if these are words coming from our leaders. And it is a sadness at the lack of elementary human decency and, yes, the lack of “love thy neighbor” attitude.

So, please do not dismiss this as just the “election tactics.” What was done was repulsive and hurtful to many. Are we going to accept this as a new normal in political discourse? Is this going to be what acceptable election methods are like? Really? If you have any respect for me and other “others” like me, if you value me and my wife and other “others” like us as respected members of society, please hold the person you elected to be the president of the United States accountable for his words and actions.

I respect the results of the election. I respect the office of the president of the United States. I do not respect the person that will hold that office for the next four years. Not because of his political views (surprisingly enough, I actually agree with a couple of his proposals), but because of the kind of a human being that he showed himself to be during the election.

Please, let’s all reflect on this and only then we can move on.