Un-Friend Me. I Won’t Take it Personally.

In case you’ve not logged into Facebook in the last year and a half, you should know that I’m not a Trump fan.

Now, the number of trump posts will go down as time passes, and I’ll be putting up more light stuff too. But I truly believe he’s a fascist, and he’s going to bankrupt this country (debt is how he works, he’s declared bankruptcy 6 times, and his spending and tax proposals…).

I understand if we disagree on that, but certainly we can agree that if YOU thought a fascist had become president, you’d oppose him. As a teacher, as an American, as a human being, I need to speak out. And I will.

Now I can promise you this… I’m going to try to be original. I’m not going to be re-posting ugly-memes, unsubstantiated claims, or rambling tirades (well, I’ll do my best). I’m a writer and essayist, and that kind of thing is the antithesis of what I do (though I’m still quite raw from the election, so I’ve not been as disciplined as I hope to be in the future, and I think maybe we all should give each other a pass over the last week and next few days).

But there are a lot of reasons to unfriend someone.

The first is over politics. I’ve heard it said “You can’t unfriend someone over politics”, but that strikes me as bordering on absurd. Politics is morality. I’d unfriend a white supremacist, even if he expressed his views, not cowering behind a white robe, but exclusively through political action. On either side of the debate, we must all agree that abortion is a moral issue. Gay Rights/Defense of Marriage are moral issues. If you can’t unfriend over those… What’s the button there for?

The second reason is over frustration. You may well agree with me, but after a year and a half of politics, you need a break. And all your other friends are back to posting kittens and rainbows, and I’m being a downer. I get that. Facebook needs to be what YOU need it to be, and you can fully support every word I say and STILL say “Hey, Nick, enough’s enough—my mouth is reaching around to chew on my brain, man”. That’s an honest reason for that Unfriend button, and like I said, I’ll try to be original and interesting, but if that’s not the Facebook you want or can handle right now… I understand, I really do.

And in and between these two are a million permutations, and every one of them valid (except my hair. Don’t say you don’t like it when you know it’s fabulous!).

If you want to unfriend me because you don’t like my views, I won’t be offended. I probably wouldn’t like your views either, and would cut YOU off if you were as vocal as I am.

If you just need a break from my bloviating, I get it. Nothing personal there either. No need to message me, just click unfriend. Hopefully there will be a time you’ll want to come back, or I’ll be more tolerable. It’s not personal.

But I’m not going to stop. You need to know that. I’m going to relax as things get settled, but Donnie just put a white supremacist into the highest staff position in the White House, and that’s barely in the list of top five worst things he’s done this week. I’m not going to stop. Writing is all I have to oppose him, and I will not stop.

Of the top five of my friends whom I respect the most, I can see at least three unfriending me but for they don’t want to hurt my feelings (and they’ve never posted a single political post in their lives. I know who they are, and why they’d do it). And if you want to talk to me about it, I’m here.

But I will not stop. All it takes for evil to triumph is for the good to do nothing. I will not go to my grave with that being said of me. I’ll tilt at a thousand windmills before that’s me.

This is the most extreme, divided time since the civil war, and there are those of you who are engaged and fighting as hard as I am, but for whom Facebook is a place to get away from it. I really do know that. And there are some of you, even family, who do not concur with me in any way on this issue. I know that too.

Do what you need to do for yourself. I’m a big boy, and I understand, I really do.

Good Luck. To everyone.