Step 1: Vote for Trump. Step 2: ...?

Let me be perfectly clear: If you’re voting for Trump, you are not a person I care to know. Whether you’re a blood relative, an old flame, a schoolmate, or a co-worker, your vote tells me you don’t value my marriage (as Trump promises to appoint Supreme Court nominees who will strike down that marriage right), you don’t value the safety and well-being of our children (as Trump incites violence against minorities), you don’t support the rights or see the inherit value of women (see: groping, alleged child rape, women’s health, right to choose, equal pay, etc.), you don’t value each and every human life (see: gun control, right to choose, programs for the needy, immigration, value for all ethnicities) or you don’t understand the dire importance of climate change (Trump thinks it’s a hoax.) There are SO many reasons NOT to vote for him, that if you can’t even find one single cause to rally behind, it is very likely you’re a person with whom I really would rather not engage.

So, if you choose, please de-friend me. It’s the honorable thing to do.

And if you choose not to do that, please do not create idle chit chat with me. Please do not say nice things about our family and then vote against us at the ballot box. If you choose that path, please also know that you’re a hypocrite―and I know you are.

If you choose to ignore all of my warnings above and STILL vote for Trump, if you see me coming, do us both a favor and walk away. I do not want to embarrass you by going off on your ass in the Safeway parking lot. I do not want to create small talk with you, as if you hadn’t just stabbed me and my family in our backs.

I do not want you telling me “It’s the lesser of two evils” or “They’re both bad.” These two candidates are not remotely comparable on the “evil” scale, so quit hiding behind Trump to cloak your racist or sexist tendencies. One candidate has worked a lifetime to better our people and planet (and has the scars and known flaws to prove it). The other is a failed businessman whose trail is littered with broken lives, unpaid debts, and bankruptcies... You may not like Hillary Clinton, but there is NO comparison in terms of qualifications or intent. Equating the two merely shows your ignorance.

But more than voting against Trump, I hope you’re voting for our nation’s future. For a land where ALL are created and treated equally―where all lives matter, whether peaceful or protesting. Where less deaths occur due to gun violence. Where there is a planet left to care about. Where multiculturalism is valued, allowing us to learn and grow from each other.

If you’re wanting to make America “great again,” that means you are looking back. You’re cherishing some undefinable time when things were “great.” But America has never been great... Our country has strived for and stumbled towards greatness, but has not yet achieved it. There was once a time when women were not allowed to vote. Was that great? There was a time in our country’s recent history when Japanese Americans were rounded up in internment camps. Was that great? There was once a time in which Russ and I would’ve been deemed “sexual deviants.” Was that great? There was also a time when kids like ours would’ve been hung from trees. Was that great?

If you really want to make America great again, look to the future. Only one candidate stands for a future for all of us. And I’m with her.

First shared on his Facebook page, this post has since taken on a life of its own, as did Edwards-Stout’s 2012 “Please De-Friend Me.” Kergan Edwards-Stout can be found at kerganedwards-stout.com, and on Facebook and Twitter.