The One You Feed - Post Election Mini-Episode

Episode Date: November 10, 2016

This is a very brief summary of my thinking today post-election.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

I'm Jason Alexander. And I'm Peter Tilden. And together, our mission on the Really Know Really podcast is to get the true answers to life's baffling questions like why the bathroom door doesn't go all the way to the floor, what's in the museum of failure, and does your dog truly love you? We have the answer. Go to reallyknowreally.com

and register to win $500, a guest spot on our podcast, or a limited edition signed Jason bobblehead. The Really Know Really podcast. Follow us on the iHeartRadio app Apple podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts Hey everybody, it's Eric here with a post-election mini-episode. So, this podcast is not a political podcast, nor does it intend to become a political podcast. But, the day after a highly contentious election, there are a lot of people that I know who are struggling.

Because I think that, for a lot of people, this election is touching on way more than politics, and really gets at how do we treat people. You know, what's dignity, what's respect, what's equality. And I think those things are part of what we care about here on the show. I had a friend call me today who is in a minority group and, you know, just felt like that America hates him, which I think is an overstatement, but I can understand that feeling. I can see where you could interpret that. And so a perspective I have being from Ohio is what some of the people who voted for Trump and what's going on there, because I think that it's easy to jump to a conclusion that everybody who did that is racist and bigoted and all that because of some of the things that Donald Trump said. And I think that there were a lot of people who voted for him in spite of those things, not because of them. And if you've been to rural America, and you've seen the devastation that's there, the jobs that are gone, the hollowed out downtowns, the meth epidemic, the heroin epidemic, thing after thing, those people do feel like they

have been left behind. And I guess you could say in certain cases they have been. Now, I think that the solution to that is misguided in a lot of cases. But if you've watched your whole town and way of life fall apart, and there's someone saying they can fix it, sometimes you go for that, even if maybe the medicine seems a little bad. And so I think what I'm in essence trying to say is not everybody who voted for Trump is a racist and a bigot and all those things. I think that's important to remember. So the other thing that I just want to talk about is, you know, the show is about which wolf do we feed? And I think we're at a real critical point

for a lot of people. Which wolf are they going to feed here in the loss of this election, which feels very pointed to certain people? And I think that for me, regardless of what circumstance I'm facing, you know, in the beginning of the show, we talk about the parable about, you know, you're going to feed the wolf love and kindness and bravery, or you're going to feed the wolf of hate or evil or fear. And so I think there's a real choice here to be made in what do we do with this. And I'm one of those people that is always in favor of action. We can't think our way into right action. Sometimes we have to act our way into right thinking.

right action. Sometimes we have to act our way into right thinking. And so if you're feeling deeply troubled by what happened, if you're feeling that this country isn't yours anymore, you don't believe in what we think it stands for, you're worried that people who are minorities are feeling singled out or left out, help. Find a way to get involved. A couple of things right off the top of my head, and I posted some of these on the site, volunteer for a refugee support group. People that are coming into this country, they need to know that there are people here that welcome them and want them here and care about them. Support the ACLU or the Human Rights Committee. There's lots of groups to support, but I think that we want to work on kindness. You know, this is a classic serenity prayer moment.

What can we change? What can't we change? We cannot change the results of the election, but we can change how we're going to respond to that, what we are personally going to do. How are we going to make the world a better place? You know, how are we going to tend our garden, the thing that is near us? And how are we going to work within ourselves with the emotions that we're facing? And do we really believe in things like hatred never ceases by hate?

Do we really believe that? If so, this is the time that I think we all have to look inside and really make those things more than phrases and make them something that really matters, something that we take out into the world. So again, none of this is intended to be political, but it's intended to take people who may feel like some of the basic things in our country, equality and dignity and respect are under attack and remind us that there are some things that we can do and that giving into despair is never a good option. It is feeding the bad wolf. Same as thinking that everybody who voted differently than we do is an idiot or a

monster is feeding the bad wolf also. Certainly there are some people in those demographics that sound like that, but this is just an encouragement to keep your head up, try and make the world a better place as close to you as you can, and find other people who support you, and take care of yourself. And I guess that's all I got. Thanks. Bye. Thank you.