DeMOCKracy

I don't usually wade in on politics, or anything for that matter, as I think everyone is entitled to their opinion and it's not in my nature to attempt to persuade others to my way of thinking.  That said, I do have an opinion on what's unfolding on social media about our EU referendum and so in my own quiet way I'm going to take it apart so I can process it.

I cannot believe the hateful, bullying and belittling things that are being said about voters who chose to leave or remain.  The whole point of democracy is that EVERYONE is permitted a voice and the freedom to choose, anything less than that is tyranny and a dictatorship.  Everyone has the right to an opinion but no one has the right to bully, insult, shame, or name call because some one else has a different opinion.  And that goes for everyone whether you voted to leave or remain.  Voting to leave no more makes you a racist or insane or a bigot than voting to remain makes you a tree hugging hipster or a working class free-loader or a delusional twat.  Such horrible vitriol saddens me.  I am staggered by the amount of intelligent adults who have taken to mocking, deriding and insulting others.  When was it decided that it was okay to put the mock in democracy in capital letters and to focus on that?

Do they do this out of fear? Fear of the unknown and uncertainty? Possibly, I couldn't say and wouldn't presume to say it was so.  As a person who openly admits to suffering with anxiety about these things I can say I've learnt one very important lesson about coping with it: it all comes down to choice.  Moving forward we all have a choice to make about our behaviour and how we cope, we can choose to give into our fears, to allow the voice of uncertainty to stoke our worries and watch the fallout.  Or we could choose to move forward in a positive fashion, to look at our options and have confidence in our ability to cope with whatever comes.

I honestly don't know where we go from here or how this decision is going to impact me and the ones I love, what I do know for certainty in the face of this uncertainty is that I am not going to stop loving my family, friends and neighbours, nor will I stop embracing change and diversity.