First: I want you all to remember that we humans are captive to the tides of history. This has been and always will be true.

Second: I hate how much brain space so many people have given over to the presidential election. I hate how a certain political candidate seems to have been top of the news and front of mind for almost all my liberal friends for almost a decade now.

Why? Why do you continue to give him that space? I walk away when the subject comes up. There are too many other things–lovely and difficult–to think about. There are other people standing right in front of us who maybe need us right now. I mean this literally, not figuratively. Who is in the room with you right now? Who is on the other end of that text message? Maybe instead of making a statement about a political figure you could center the conversation around your companion instead?

Third: On the topic of fear. I saw a lot of worrying things going around the Internet the past couple months. Some very extreme things. One in particular has stayed with me: a post about how we were going to end up with concentration camps in the United States if the presidential election goes red.

I have buried the lede like the mediocre writer that I am, so I’m going to bold it for emphasis.

Ask yourself: who is benefitting from this fear and hatred that I am feeling?

I guarantee you it is not the person standing in front of you. Your children are certainly not benefitting from it, nor your spouse or parents or neighbors or friends.

The politicians are benefitting from your fear. Anyone who wants the United States divided is benefitting from your hatred.

Is that who you’re working for in this life?

I am begging you, my fellow liberals, who I know (mostly) have good hearts and want to do the right thing: set aside your fear. Stop giving over so much space to this. If you feel strongly about an issue, give your money and time and your vote to that issue.

And please stop talking about it around me. Please. I have students and teachers and families I need to support at my job. I need to be emotionally present at home for my kids and spouse and the one cat who may or may not be sliding into kitty cat dementia. I have friends that I want to uplift and that is just so much more important to me than this change in the tides of history.