NOBODY'S PERFECT, AND EVERYBODY IS RACIST. It's the people who are unapologetic for their racism or deny their own racism that contribute to hate. Hate leads to hate crimes. The words matter. And who's spreading the words matters, too. Especially when it's you. You, who are supposed to be my friend. You, whom I trusted with my love.

You say, publicly, that it's important to stand up for people being targeted for their race. And yes. Yes, it is.

That includes sharing media. Spreading information or misinformation. That includes when your elected officials are posting stuff.

I don't care which side of the aisle you stand on. I care if you ignore someone's rhetoric over and over and over again because you've decided that the entirety of mainstream media is untrustworthy. That all of the people--the writers, the editors, the managers--are influenced by money, that all those decisions are made by money, that no part of the organization is useful.

The thing I can't get past is that you voted for this person who pushed this rhetoric, and not the person who actively tried to push against that rhetoric.

The thing I can't get past is how much it hurts me that you said "yes" to that.

HOW CAN THIS PLACE BE SO PEACEFUL for me yet so destructive to you?

This valley with its lush green grasses under my Converse sneakers. With its bright blue skies over my box-dyed hair. With its morning birds chirping to each other as I type with my thumbs on my phone. With its desert-yellow flowers I capture on my NatGeo app. And as I get closer to my brother's home in the mountains, I walk on cracked asphalt, passing a plastic, broken Pelon con Rico container on the floor, blown out of a trash can by the high winds.