Since the 2016 election cycle began, I have refrained from posting anything political on any type of social media. I made this choice because I did not want to be a part of ridiculous arguments or be insulted for my opinion online. However, I have now chosen to make my voice heard and express my opinion because I believe my right to free press is more important than getting in a stupid argument. If you decide to unfriend me due to this, please don't hesitate to press that button. If you decide to disown me, please don't hesitate to do so, I will be fine. However, Donald Trump is not a good person, nor will he make a good president. I understand differences in opinion and I respect your right to think differently because that is how we grow as humans. I respect the fact that some don't want a Democratic government or that some disagree with certain ideologies. However, I have lost and wasted brain cells trying to understand how people can support a hateful, sexist, racist, ignorant man like Donald Trump.
I have seen that most people seem to like him and his rhetoric because he speaks the truth. However, I encourage you to look deep within yourself and ask yourself, who's truth? I too get tired sometimes of being politically correct and I find some arguments like the Starbucks red cup one absolutely ridiculous. I feel that some people forget that there is a difference between being politically correct and being outright offensive. There is no need to offend people directly and be rude and hateful because you feel like spewing out every word that comes through that big old head of yours.
Just because Trump says these words does not make them right, it does not excuse him from being polite and respectful. It is not okay to say that Mexicans are only bringing drugs, crime, and rapists. It is not okay to dismiss the Islamic religion as merely a religion of crazy extremists. It is not okay to place people like Humayun Khan, a patriot who lost his life fighting for this great nation, into the same category as the terrorists who brought evil to places like Brussels, Paris, Nice and Turkey.
It is not okay to say that all illegal immigrants are bringing crime and all Mexicans are lazy. I think he forgets the criminals who ravaged our nation with the Sandy Hook massacre, Columbine, the Stanford rape case and the Charleston Church shooting. I do not think he has not seen the hundreds of Mexican immigrants standing on the scorching streets of San Diego, California, with signs trying to get a job doing whatever they can for whatever they can get. These are hard working people who want to contribute to this country. All races, ethnicities, and religions have bad apples but that does not mean that they are all the same. I want you to ask yourself again, who's truth is he vehemently preaching?
Segregation was wrong. World War II was wrong. That is why we went to war against European nations because we believed that concentration camps were wrong and that branding one religion as dangerous was wrong. We passed Brown v. Board finally because we believed that all men and women are created equal and deserve an equal education regardless or the color of their skin. When did we start regressing to the time when we judged people for the color of their skin and not the content of their character? I thought we were past this as a nation. I was wrong.
Electing Trump will not bring us back to the way things used to be and I sure hope that isn't the "great" he is searching for in his slogan. Lynching African-Americans was not great. Women sitting in their homes all day and not contributing to the economy was not great. LGBTQ people hiding in corners and suffering because they had to hide who they are was not great. I can agree to disagree about policy, platforms, religious beliefs and many other topics, but racism and hatred and the discrediting of women is not one of them.
To all my Mexican, Latino, Muslim, Christian, Jewish, Native American, Black, Asian, Women friends and every other category of people Donald Trump has offended or tried to put in a box, I stand with you. I implore you all to get out there and vote against him because this is not a race about being Democratic or Republican. This is a race about being an American. This is a race about believing in the progress of America and about fighting for justice. I believe we are better than this. I believe that as Franklin Delano Roosevelt once reminded us, "We have nothing to fear, but fear itself." In this country we don't fear change, we embrace it. We fight for justice and equality. We fight for what is right. Don't let one man's truth become your bible because the United States of America tells a different truth.
