#wesurvived2016

[smexylexi]

“Love does not consist of gazing at each other, but in looking outward together in the same direction.” 🍾🎉💋#mcm #NYE2016 #nyekiss #readyfor2017 #polaroids #latergram #3rdnewyearstogether #wesurvived2016 (at Valencia, Santa Clarita, California)

[ddelasvegas]

I ain't gon lie, I'm a lil shmezzzzed 🍷🍺#newyears #wesurvived2016 #nicetomeetyou2017

[72crowe89]

#We Survived 2016

So, a lot of awful things happened in 2016.

Many innocent people died due to hatred and terrorism.  Bigotry and divisiveness are promoted by the governments against the people they’re meant to govern.  The people they’re meant to protect.  Prejudice of all kinds is normalized, given bigots far and wide the platform to practice their hatred, both nonviolently and violently.  Many of the younger generation have inherited a world from the older generation that they didn’t ask for.  Many innovators, people who caught our imaginations, spoke our emotions, helped us through troubling times, challenged our views on the accepted, promoted tolerance and individuality, and influenced multiple generations of people, died this year.

In spite of this, we survived.

We survived the bigotry foisted upon us.  We survived our governments’ encouragement of it.  We survived violence against our communities and our persons.  We survived the loss of many good people.  We survived 2016.

2016 encouraged us to stand together.  To celebrate each other’s difference and protect them from those who attack them.  To expose ourselves to thinking different from our own.  To condemn any attacks on women, Blacks, LGBTQ, Latinx, Muslims, Native Americans, immigrants, refugees, and any other minority or oppressed group, even from our own government or our own people.  To become the new innovators, and to use our talents to promote equality, acceptance, and out-of-the-box thinking.  As much as 2016 has brought out the worst in people, it has also brought out the best.

So on January 1st, 2017, let’s get trending #wesurvived2016.  Rather than focusing on how bad 2016 was, let’s focus on the fact that we made it through in spite of it.  Rather than forgetting 2016, let’s use it as a reminder for why we stand with each other, protect each other, love each other.