Tonight, we are genuinely scared. Deeply saddened.
Hard as it is for us all to believe, Donald Trump is our next president.
There are simply no words to capture the collective pain we feel right now. We’ve elected a racist, bigoted, sexist, predatory man with fascist tendencies and a huge temper.
Jake and I have spent every waking moment of the past five years working toward the mission of informing, inspiring and empowering our generation to change the world. We tried to channel the best ideas from our generation. And in the moment when our generation became the biggest voting bloc in American history, our voices fell silent.
We failed.
That hurts. We’ve asked so many friends to drop everything and join us. We’ve made promises to our community of millions of peers. We’ve obsessed over harnessing the power of ideas supercharged through our global networks. And yet tonight, in the face of the most damning threat to our future, we’ve hit rock bottom.
So what are we going to do about it?
1) We will empathize. Comfort your loved ones and stand with those who are immediately threatened. Our friends, siblings, parents and many loved ones could be affected by Trump’s draconian policies. There will be genuine fear, grief and even panic. Reach out to those you love.
2) We will report. We will shine a light on our generation’s brightest stars and best activists. We will create both physical and digital spaces for open dialogue that gives voice. We will stay focused and make our generation heard.
3) We will mobilize. Fight to defend our values, our principles and our basic tenets of democracy and human rights. We will deliberately and strategically insert ourselves in the political process to block Trump’s hurtful policies and force him to reckon with us. We will take up this fight head on and aim to minimize his damage at every turn.
We won’t fail again. We are ready to dig in. There will be no mass deportations under our watch. There will be no reversal of equality under the law. We will dedicate every minute of every day to ensure our voices are actually heard.
We will build this movement from the ground up, with the best ideas from everyone. We want to hear you. We want your feedback. We’re ready to build this together. Because this is #NotOurAmerica.
— Chris Altchek, co-founder Mic
