This weekend, there were two mass shootings in the United States in less than twenty-four hours, leaving dozens dead and injured. These are not even the first this week. Tragically, there will likely be more next week…perhaps tomorrow…or before I even finish writing this. More Americans have died to gun violence in the last forty years or so than in all the wars we have fought in during our nation’s history. Is this who we want to be?

While families are slaughtered in our streets, we tear others apart at our southern border. We detain asylum seekers and US citizens alike in concentration camps, without regard to the morality or legality of doing so. Children are traumatized for life; families are irrevocably destroyed; and innocent lives are lost. Is this who we want to be?

Wildfires, hurricanes, flooding, and record heat waves sweep across our nation, destroying homes, livelihoods, and lives. Climate change is here, and countless more lives will be lost in the coming years. And yet, for decades, we have done nothing to avert disaster, despite the clear warnings of both science and the world around us. Is this who we want to be?

If you are still supporting the Republican Party and their chosen standard bearer, then I ask you to answer these questions. Answer them silently; answer them to yourself. I don’t want to hear your answers. I ask only that you reflect on what they answers are for you, personally.

• Do you want thousands to be murdered every year by gun violence?
• Do you want families to be torn apart and children caged like animals?
• Do you want your children or grandchildren to be faced with famine, fire, or flood?
• Do you want to live in a nation whose laws are written to bolster racism, misogyny, homophobia, and countless other forms of hate?
• Do you want to live in a nation who allows its people to go without healthcare in order to keep its wealthiest citizens and businesses from paying taxes?

These are the things the GOP stands for. They pronounce these values loudly and proudly, through both word and deed. It doesn’t matter what you say your values are; a vote for the GOP is a vote for “yes” on all of the above. Can you live with that?

Who do you want to be?