'Mum, Where Were You The Day Trump Was Elected?'

Would you do something for me? It will only take a moment of your time if you have a second to spare. Please. Turn to the person next to you and ask them if they're okay. Ask them if they need advice or a friend. Ask them if they need a shoulder to cry on.

'I was saving the world'

Would you do something for me? It will only take a moment of your time if you have a second to spare. Please. Turn to the person next to you and ask them if they're okay. Ask them if they need advice or a friend. Ask them if they need a shoulder to cry on.

I know I do. This is one of those days in history. Some might say dark days, others glorious. It doesn't really matter. Either way the political cogs have turned, are turning round and round, spinning us to places I cannot follow, don't believe I can go; refuse to go.

Please listen carefully as I don't want to burden you. But, when you walk down the street, can I ask you to say 'Good Morning' to whoever you might meet? Give them a smile. They may have voted for someone completely different to you but remember this; they are still human; eyes, nose, mouth, hands, arms, legs, hopes, dreams, fears and insecurities. They might be scared; they might be looking for help and don't know where to turn.

Would you scorn them? Would you turn away? Would it help if I gave you a skin colour by which to define them? A country by which to judge? An accent by which to mock? These days are over. They should have ended long ago. But today, we make a change.

A change that I can't do alone. I need your help. Desperately. Let's make a stand. Say no to hate crimes, no to war. No to racial slurs, and stereotyping. Trump may 'stand' for all of America and May might 'stand' for Britain. Merkel might 'stand' for Germany and Hollande might 'stand' for France. But at the end of the day, they're still just people. They are human and they no more important than you or I. Historians will write and rewrite essays about these days to come but let's make our own history. A history where people gave up violence, abandoned hate and disarmed their nuclear toys. Because a history where the people of the world stand together to move past the violence and end the war will be remembered for far longer than you or I or Trump's election.

So if I ask you to start by doing something small, by smiling at the next person you see, will you do that? Will you do it for me?

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