On the evening of November 8, I witnessed history as my home city elected in a landslide victory its first African-American mayor, that night he also became the youngest mayor of any major American city. The optimism and celebration of that night was a bubble of optimism within progressive democratic California whom could not believe the election results. Now I know that by now you may have decided to stop reading because you think this will be a liberal progressive splurge, do not fret, this is not the case I swear!

One thing that we can all agree with, depending where you stand on the political scale, is that this campaign was vicious, divisive, and outright embarrassing to watch. We witnessed history yes you and I!

If you supported the President-Elect congratulations, your candidate won and will get to implement his agenda, America will change that we can all count on. If you did not support the President-Elect don't panic, we live in a republic with checks and balances, and in two years' voters have the chance to shake things up again.

Now, some of the things the 2016 Election will always be remembered for are: Lock Her Up, Crooked Hilliary, 30K Emails, a HUGE beautiful wall, the FBI butting its nose, Russia hacking the DNC, private email serves, Anthony Wiener, and MOST importantly a whole list of insults, falsehoods, and denials said by the President-Elect so large and ridiculous it could take up this entire article to just list them. We all know of what I am talking about and we will just settle it at that.

That list of insults is what made this campaign so popular, scary, pragmatic and even fun to watch honestly. Not only where adults baffled and entertained by the lunacy of it all, so were our children. I work in a K-8 school in a growing middle-class suburb in Central California, our student population is reflective of the state I live in. Demographically "non-white "students overwhelm "white" students, when it comes to staff we are as diverse as our students. Ethnically most of my students are of Hispanic/Latino heritage, followed by Caucasians, Asians: Indian, Chinese, Filipino, Middle Eastern, and others from South East Asian Countries. African-Americans follow in closely, and a small Native-American population thrives as well.

Days before Election Day I had seen how students were reacting to what they saw in the media, and the consensus was fear. After the elections, my fourth-grade English Learner's group did not want to talk about anything at all other than the election. They were legitimately afraid for their future and for the future of their families.

Several of my students are Punjabi and by decree of their faith they wear a turban covering their hair, they were afraid to be confused as Muslims as some explained to me they already had been throughout the day. Mexican-American students were upset that the President-Elect had called them "rapist" and "criminals", even worst that they American born U.S. Citizens would be deported back to Mexico a country some had not even visited. Boys were commenting how it was ok for them to grope any girl or women by the p*ssy because the President-Elect had done so, and if it was ok for him it would be for them as well.

I was dumbfounded, the election had literally affected EVERY member of society - even children! The feeling was one of fear, instead of going over the lesson plan I had in mind, we each took some time to write down the things we all had in common and how we could come together as a nation. As each of my students began reading their passages I clearly understood how afraid they were, but also realized that they understood that respect, dialogue and cooperation are the founding principles of society.

Not only that but they all shared a universal rage at the fact they could not express their civic duty and vote. Some of these kids had even literally registered their parents to vote! Knowing that they are so politically engaged and active at such a young age gave me hope for the continual growth of our American Republic. This optimism was sadly overshadowed once again by that same thing these kids feared, a kid reported to a yard duty that he had seen a hateful message written in one of the boy's bathroom.

As staff I was immediately notified of this, this might have been done as a joke by some students to tease other students. Despite the setback, the issue was quickly cleaned up and was not widely talked or given more attention or opportunity to cause harm. America is diverse it has from the beginning and will continue to be just as Wattmag and Wattpad is diverse.

We cannot be subdued by hateful rhetoric, ideologies, or falsehoods nor brush it off as the new normal and morally objective truths. Personally, I had always associated politically with the Republican Party, and view myself a Conservative Libertarian yet what I saw this year in the party scared me I could not associate nor relate to it. After this election, I knew which party represented, advocated and stood for my beliefs.

Wattmag and Wattpad like America are all loved by people from different backgrounds, beliefs, ethnicities, culture's, some of us are gay and others straight, some of us have conservative political views while some progressive. Yet, we all share one common value: respect. Respect for each other as we share this melting pot of ideas, people and stories. Hate will never win.