Check, check, America, are you there? Now, this is the opinion section, so I’ll be frank: what the heck just happened?

Whether you feel hysteria or happiness after the 2016 election, I’m not here to pick and choose your emotions. I’m simply here to state the truth. Since nobody wants a lecture on the rhetoric Trump will uphold in his presidency — it is, after all, too ambiguous to make projections — we should focus on what’s already happening and respond accordingly.

With Trump as our new president-elect, he gave us a rather vague answer about his presidential legitimacy in “60 Minutes” with Lesley Stahl five weeks ago. “It is so big,” he said, when referring to his startling victory and eventual presidency.

Well, big for whom, him? Be that as it may, what about the rest of us?

Just a day after the Nov. 8 election, anti-Trump protests ignited. These protestors rallied restlessly for days in places like Baltimore, Portland, Manhattan, Philadelphia, Seattle, Chicago and Los Angeles. With protests dying down and a variety of political minds second-guessing our future, is democracy being put on hold?

With all we’ve witnessed so far, it is important to join the fight for whatever cause you believe in. But in a divided time like this, we cannot wage war against each other. This fight shouldn’t be against each other’s opposing politics; it should be for one another.

Here at Oak Park, we have some people who supported Trump, some Clinton, some third party and some undecided. We also have a throng of passionate activists and philanthropists who are set to campaign for what they believe in.

But as we do so, we must remember that hatred is not the answer for either party, despite how strongly we may have felt about this election. Reactions founded upon inciting fear and instigating violence does nothing but feed the fire that threatens to burn this country down.

We can start moving on by being understanding of those who are afraid in unstable times like these. Even if you don’t belong to a certain demographic, criticizing any group’s reaction to this election demonstrates little but a lack of empathy.

We need to respect each other, and that includes Democrats respecting Republicans, and Republicans respecting Democrats. There are the people mentioned above who may be scared about what’s happened so far. But there are also people who are relieved and happy about the outcome — over 50 million people, in fact — who had their reasons for supporting Trump.

Just as Clinton supporters didn’t go out to vote just to be hateful toward Trump supporters, Trump supporters didn’t go out to vote to be hateful toward Clinton supporters.

These are complex, three-dimensional people we’re talking about, folks. So when hatred and mud-slinging run rampant between the parties, we are only destroying the progress we’ve made so far. If you supported Clinton and you truly believe that love should trump hate, you need to start working with people and stop reducing them all to uneducated bigots.

Politics change all of our lives: across all backgrounds, spectrums and walks of life. With so much at stake, we have neither the time nor the energy to breed hatred and violence among each other. This isn’t a time to move backward; it’s a time to move forward. Love and acceptance in this nation starts when we rise above violence.