It ought to be said that though I am incredibly liberal, I will
be respectful Friday of the fact that America is swearing in a new president.
Many people are going to judge me for saying this, but please allow me to
explain before you hotheadedly unfriend or block me, and choose to make me a
topic of gossip among both you and your various friend groups.
There are several US elections in which people were elected/in
office that the American people disputed. Those range from Jefferson, who was
considered too elite and not in touch with the American people; to the Bush
administrations and even the Obama administration in the last eight years,
where they were considered too radical in one direction or another.
Here's what I know, though. Donald Trump is about to become
president of the United States, and join the portraits that adorn many
political hallways across this nation. He is an elite- of the highest class
(and then some), but he campaigned through promises to the poor. If he truly
regards human life, even the poorest of human life, he will make means for them
to do more than survive.
Barack Obama has done some remarkable things in office, but he
clearly was unable to unite America in a way that would have prevented the 2016
election from being such a knock-down, drag-out. He initiated a (not so)
Affordable Care Act, that in theory could help hundreds of thousands of
Americans. However, people in America refuse to believe that new policies
require time; time that is necessary to develop both acceptance, and to work out
all of the kinks in the program.
The problem with the Affordable Care Act (ACA) could have easily
been solved by Mr. Trump, had his intentions truly been to satisfy the needs
and wants of the lower classes. Instead, Mr. Trump is choosing to overturn a
system that could be altered, smoothed over, and perfected by the new staff he
has put into place for the coming four years. Our soon to be president could
have chosen to amend the ACA to cover even the poorest of people, and explained
that there are ways to apply for assistance in payment that make more sense
than paying out the behind in medical bills and fines at the end of every year.
Mr. Trump has chosen to see no good in the previous American
administration, run by two people who were more than qualified, as he spent
most of those eight years trying to disprove the citizenship of the first
African American president, as well as campaigning against many more-than-qualified
individuals for the seat as if it were just another reality television show.
Mr. Trump, young Americans would like you to know that our
futures are now in the hands of someone who could do a dramatic amount of good,
or a tremendous amount of bad. You could rebuild America- turn it into a place
where every person is truly equal to
one another. Not in the socialistic sense, mind you, but in the sense that we
are all given a fair opportunity to make our way in this world.
However, many of us dread the opposite of that. We dread the
idea of watching our Islamic, Jewish, Christian, Catholic, gay, and transgender
friends afraid to be who they are because you, Mr. Trump, have given them a
reason to fear.
I, personally anyways, do not believe you to be a stupid man. To
be fair, you have to have some measure of intellect to be able to succeed (yes,
readers, I realize he has gone bankrupt a few times- allow me to give him the
benefit of the doubt just this once) in the business world. Success, though, is
not measured in the amount of buildings with your name on it. A simple Google
search is enough to find out that though you are a loud and generally insatiable
man, you have dedicated some amount of kindness to those beneath you. You have
given money and time to people who have less than you, and that gives me a
strange kind of hope.
As a young adult woman, I do stand with my fellow women who
believe that we should have control over our bodies. I stand with my LGBTQ+
friends, who wish to love whom they want to love. I stand beside of my homeless
friends, who have found shelter in my house at one time or another. I stand for
the veterans, who from serving our nation have lost the ability to do so
themselves. I will stand for the people of West Virginia, who are so tired of
being a grease spot on the map that they voted for you because you did not
mistake us for the western half of Virginia.
I will continue to stand,
even throughout your presidency, for all of the American people. Granted, I am
just one person… But one person is just the beginning of one million.
I will also choose to kneel, only to kneel in prayer, and it
will always be on the behalf of anyone in this great nation who needs it.
Even for you, Mr. Trump.
Many of my peers, and many of my younger friends who got no say
in this election are afraid. They are afraid of losing- whether it be losing
friends due to outdated immigration laws, family due to the repeal of necessary
healthcare legislation, or companions to political disagreement and dispute on
whether or not you should be allowed to sit in that Oval Office for the next
four years.
Mr. Trump, if you could listen and understand one thing from a
young American, it would be this:
We want to be a nation indivisible, with liberty and justice for
all.
We want to see the rapists, the real rapists, like Brock Turner, sentenced to hard time or hard
labor for their actions. We are tired of people being assaulted and murdered,
for their gender, for their religion, and for their sexuality.
We want to see people, thriving and healthy because there is a
system in place in government that cares about the wellbeing of everyone from
the lowest class to the highest. We want real affordable healthcare, with more
places like Planned Parenthood that keep people informed and healthy regardless
of what they have in their wallet. However, we need to educate people that free
healthcare facilities are not just standing to rip some unknown fetus from some
“unwilling womb,” but that they are there to help save lives and catch diseases
that might otherwise not be caught or handled if an individual is unable to
afford regular visits to a healthcare professional. We do not want useless systems like Medicaid and Medicare, that only
cover portions of things, and leave normal people confused and in debt to large
corporations that they have never heard of before in their lives.
We want to see people educated. I have gotten to a point in my
life where it is no longer any fun to be the most intelligent person in the
room, mostly because it means that I get dirty looks from those not as privileged
to have shared a roof with a teacher for much of their lives. In fact, the only
reason I am so smart is because people cared so much when I was a lot younger.
That is how every American should be
raised and taught, from the beginning. Not that education is mandated and a
thing to suffer through, but that it is readying people for the adult world,
and all of the possibilities to come. My peers and the children of this nation
need to be unafraid to dream big for
things like college and careers. College should not be something that forces
someone to compromise something in their future like a house or a car (both of
which are very necessary to even survive in
twenty-first century America.) It should be something that encourages that
dream, and it should be easily accessible by the many instead of the few.
We want it to stop. By it, I mean the hatred and ignorance that
has plagued this nation for the last several years. If you would like to gain
our unwavering support, Mr. Trump, in the next four years- then protect us.
Protect all of us. Not just the
solemn few American white men that walked into polling places all across the
nation last November and chose your name. Support the women, children,
minorities, and majorities as a whole.
Choose to be the bigger person, and run your station as an
elected official should. Rule not with an iron fist and ideals rooted in
ignorance, but govern with a compassion that reaches all people.
I have not been a supporter of you, and I definitely am not
admitting to being one now… But I do know that being a divided nation at this
point in history is the worst thing that we could possibly decide to do.
So, when all is said and done, I will be respectful this week.
You can say and do many things, Mr. Trump, but you will not take
away the hope that many of us have in this nation. In fact, should you make a
mindful decision to, you can restore hope that goes back generations. Quite honestly,
that is left up to you and the future of your administration as President of
the United States of America.
We are all watching, Mr. Trump. Some of us in fear, and some of
us with excitement.
Either way, it would be rude of me, especially with how I was
raised, to not wish anything other than the best of luck to our new president
elect.
Good luck, Mr. Trump.
Maybe you will somehow take in account the screaming voices of
younger Americans throughout sometime during your stent in office.
~
God bless America, and goodnight my dear readers.
I just wanted to give my real opinion. I cannot say that I want
Trump to fail, because in the words of several people on Facebook,
"Wanting Trump to fail is like Trump being the pilot of the plane, and all
of us in America being the passengers on the plane. If he crashes, we all go
down with him."
But I can definitely say that I am a safe space, and a safe
person to talk to and interact with for any person who needs it.
❤️
