I am trying so hard to stay positive about the election in America. I’m using that whole manifest-the-outcome-you-wish-to-see mindset. It is scary and it is becoming incredibly difficult to not feel like my country is inching towards a fall it can’t recover from.

I get how people can be drawn to the outrageous. I dated a pirate in college. It was exciting, weird and different. I just don’t get how people aren’t feeling those personal alarms going off. I believe most humans have little barometers of morality internally that resonate when we are contemplating a decision that is not consistent with our understanding of basic decency. Why isn’t EVERYONE recoiling when they hear hate encouraged, meanness spoken, and basic human rights threatened?

Here in France, people shake their heads at the absurdity of a man who stumbles over his words, talks circularly, and makes broad and dangerous generalizations. They ask me how a country built on immigrants suddenly can draw a line in the sand and say, “ENOUGH NOW”. How can we have the audacity to blame the very foundation of our country for the problems we have now with limited resources, crime, and poverty?

I can only hope that in this case hope, love, and logic win. Even if people don’t like the candidates that are the ballot, I hope that people will look inside and make a decision that reflects the better option– the one that doesn’t make those alarms go off. The one that allows for basic human rights, kindness, and growth. I pray Kamala wins next week. I can’t do anything else. I have children whose futures depend upon it.