by Michael Benedetto, 10th grade, Commack High School PBS Student Voices Contest Submission The 2016 presidential election, currently one of the most discussed and relevant topics at the moment, is causing quite a stir in the United States. The conflict between liberals, conservatives, independents, etc. (or in broader terms, Trump, Hillary, and other candidates' supporters) has reached a point which is concerning. As is common knowledge at this point, Trump won the election seemingly out of the blue. This was the result that almost no one was expecting. However, shock was not the only outcome of Trump winning, for what ensued after the disbelief was much more shocking in my opinion. (*Note although I have my own biased opinions in this matter, my piece is going to remain unbiased to avoid any unwanted judgment from any readers of my work. This will purely be me stating facts and putting my two-sense in that suggests I support neither side.) It's safe to say that Hillary seemed like the clear winner as November drew closer and closer, her victory appeared to be inevitable. In fact, Hillary supporters were so certain of this that they said things like "Accept losing with grace" or "Take the loss in a peaceful manner." The irony in all of this is almost laughable if I'm going to be honest. Hillary did not win the election; Hillary's supporters did not take this with grace. If something does not go your way, being upset or even angry is fine, what's not fine is rioting, anarchy, and public violence. The very people who wished for peace if Trump did not win proved to be quite the hypocrites when Hillary suffered the fate of losing. (While I may be lumping all Hillary supporters into one group, I am fully aware that this was not the case for all of them.) On top of all these palpable, physical conflicts, more problems were arising in the world of social media. People online would denounce supporters of Trump and say that either they would leave the country or just not accept him as their president. The fact of the matter is though you can complain as much as you wish and say or do whatever you like, this will achieve you nothing in the greater scale of things. Now I'm fully aware that these riots or outcries have little to no effect on my personal life, due to the fact that I'm in an area where such things did not take place. However, I would like to take a different, more indirect route to relate these conflicts to my own life in some way or another. The fact that something like an election can incite rioting within our country is scary, and who knows what effect that can have on me or anyone I know in the future. Trump was merely declared the next president of the United States and people burned American Flags; I can only imagine people's responses when it comes time for him to make decisions in office.