An evening of thought and study

Myself, like many of you reading this, may feel lost. Confused. A little helpless, maybe even hopeless? Let me remind you, we have to always have hope. In ourselves and humanity. It's been 9 days since the inauguration, and every following day seems to get more difficult for me. In the sense that I don't know what to do where I am at right now. I don't know which headlines to trust, which tweets to RT, who to talk to, how I should think. Part of me wants to sit back and just observe, however, in the past "sitting back and observing" has hurt many innocent people and groups. This afternoon I was grabbing a bowl of cereal with some friends, and some of their friends. (Disclaimer, these next few lines are how I remember and interrupted them, but I'd like to think I remembered it fairly clearly) One person at the table, well a male, said, "that tax payers money shouldn't go to helping fund abortions. It is the women's, or people pregnant, who should be responsible." I WAS ABOUT TO FLIP THE TABLE. Now I don't want this to be too political, but c'mon. Really? This young man appeared to be somewhat misinformed. It takes two people to create another being. It is not just the women. I said, "Maybe you should tell your fellow males, to also be conscious of protection and consent." I mean seems about right. Wait, don't get mad, I am aware women need to get consent from the male and be aware of consequences too. Anyway, he just said he didn't feel like it was HIS job to walk around with condoms telling people to be safe. Well if not you, who? If not now when? This excerpt I always remember talking about in Sunday school. Whenever I need healing I tend to turn towards Jewish passages or prayers. Eventually I found myself listening to part of Elie Wiesel's book, Night. Wiesel was a survivor of the holocaust. In his book he takes readers through his first hand experience with being sent to Nazi concentration camps. I then searched more online and found a video of Oprah walking through Auschwitz with him. That was powerful and I recommend watching it. ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4IJ4mpCDVpE ) Many people agree that some of Trump's tendencies are similar to those of Hitler's. We cannot let history repeat itself people. I am still baffled that there are legitimate Trump supporters, and people like the guy I encountered at my meal. Elie said, “Whenever people could try to conduct such experiments against another people we must be there to shout and say, 'No, we remember.' " We have to be heard. It has been nothing but empowering to see the millions of people, worldwide, protesting and marching. However, how can I help? Just protesting, to me, isn't doing anything. It is making a statement and I will gladly participate in those that I stand for. However, I have always had this deeper feeling and need to help, and now I'm lost. I have a whole world and social media platform to voice my opinions and connect with others. But somehow, nothing is coming to mind. If it were easy I'd board the next red eye overseas and be with those who feel threatened. I would sit with individuals and families who feel alone. It isn't that easy. I still don't know quite what to do. I'll continue thinking and doing what I can daily to open the minds and hearts of those, ignorant, uneducated, or silent, around me. Please do the same. Join me in making sure those around us know. I cannot thank those of you enough who are turning out to protests, walks, and voicing your opinions. I, and many others appreciate you. Keep it up! We are going to make a difference. Thank you for reading! If you know of any ways to get involved, feel free to let me know! Much love, ​Erin