OPINION: This is for all the sad voters

By Marissa Contreras
Managing Editor
Published Tuesday, Nov. 26, 2024

Nov. 5, 2024, was a stressful night. Being in The Bridge office, looking at the red and blue United States, I waited for Pennsylvania to turn blue.

It never happened.

By morning, our new president was called, and it was who I expected but not who I wanted.

The reason I wanted a female president was because I knew everyone’s basic human rights were going to be protected. I knew I would be a secure woman living in America. As an American, I knew my privilege with this election was higher than others. But as a person with empathy, I knew no amount of tears and love could help my friends whose lives after this election will not have the same outcome as mine.

Where I don’t have to worry about my future, others are worrying about whether they will be able to stay in the only country they have known all their lives. Where I don’t have to worry about my financial status as a graduating senior, many will have to wonder how they will pay for college when FAFSA is taken from them.

This is what the next four years will look like: Knowing gas prices might go down, yet a woman will lose her life because of a lack of treatment during a deadly childbirth. Knowing grocery prices might go down, but families who tried making a better life for themselves and their children are being deported back to countries with corrupt systems.

This is my note to those who have been negatively affected by the man who wants to change America for the worse. Although your future is unclear, know those who stood by your side, those who tried their best but lost to the money-hungry Americans who cared more about themselves than the majority, and those who just as much wanted your rights to be the same as ours.

I hear you. I see you.