hold your nose: politics

I’ve been debating this post for awhile. Politics has never been my strong suit. I have never felt that I know enough about the world to voice my opinion on who is our president. I still vote. I still have opinions on the laws that dictate my world. But I never felt I knew enough to have an opinion.

Let me tell you this: if you are a citizen of this country (and hell, even if you aren’t!), you are entitled to an opinion of who runs your world.

I grew up in a fairly liberal family. My mother was a self-pronounced “hippie” and my father is an immigrant from India. My mother’s father ran for congress as a Republican in Indiana. I’ve heard views from both sides. I’ve resonated with both sides.

What I cannot resonate with is what is happening RIGHT NOW.

I will tell you straight up, no hesitation: I disapprove of Trump.

Yes, I disapprove of our president.

Some may say this is un-American. Un-constitutional. A hormonal cry of disapproval. But why are we not allowed to disapprove of our president? Why are we not allowed to speak out? Who says we are supposed to stand behind the elected president, no questions asked, no arguments initiated? Who says?

When the ruling president of my world represents my ideas, my opinions, my relationships with other countries…when the ruling president of my world represents my PURPOSE, I damn sure am going to speak up if he violates my beliefs.

I don’t believe in exclusion. I don’t believe in bans. I don’t believe in belitting a gender or an ethnicity or ANYONE who is DIFFERENT from me.

Hell, EVERYONE is different from me.

The president reconciles his decisions based on facts of terror. “They” are different. “They” shouldn’t be allowed in because “they” might hurt us. What about the struggling teenager sitting next to you in class? Who isn’t getting the help he needs? What about him, Mr. President? He is just as capable of hurting us as the thousands you are excluding. Why don’t we pay more attention to mental health crises, why don’t we put our money into programs aimed at helping our own instead of banning entire countries from entering the United States?

This is not a matter of nationality. This is a matter of mentality.

Stop stereotyping the human race. We are all from the same source. We all end to the same source. We are only different in the ways we make ourselves different.

And now I will take a moment to be brutally honest in my opinon. Because that is why I write. To speak my opinion. Not asking you to agree, but allowing you to hear.

I remember waking up the morning after the election to a grey sky and grey heart. It was the first time politics led me to cry. It was the first time I was so touched by a political event. I remember wanting to scream. Perhaps I did. I remember wanting to rewind time. I remember hating that I couldn’t.

Here is what I wrote after the election. It has been saved on my computer ever since:

I’ve hesitated writing on this subject since the eve of November 8, 2016, when the world found out that the new president elect of the United States is Donald Trump. I’ve hesitated because part of me was in denial; but I’ve also hesitated because I’ve denied myself the ability to nonjudgmentally express my opinions, opinions that are as valuable as any other.

You see, I used to pride myself on being distanced from politics. My biggest political feat to date was sending in an original poem entitled “The Color of Unity” to Mr. George W. Bush around the time of the 9/11 attacks. Judging by the poem’s title and the recipient of that mail, you can probably guess toward which political spectrum I lean. Despite this bias, I never felt educated enough on the politics of the world to justify having an opinion about them.

But here’s what I’ve come to know: I am just as entitled to my political opinions as every other person in this nation. An “opinion” does not come with prerequisites. There is no fee required, no minimum socioeconomic status that must be met, and no particular background one must come from in order to lay claim to an opinion. This is part of the freedom granted to us by our country.

And so, with this newfound knowledge that opinions are not only a birthright of every human being, but that they can also generate intellectual conversations and the momentum required to bring about great change, I decided to express my own.

Like many others, my proclivity toward Hillary Clinton’s candidacy was based not so much in my utter faith in her, but rather in my distrust of the bigotry and division that have highlighted Donald Trump’s electoral campaign. True, the media is to blame for the heightened attacks on BOTH candidates. But when the leader of our country—a country founded on the principles of “liberty and justice for all,” a country that has wept with the bitter tears of war and rejoiced when those wars ended with progress toward equality of all peoples, a country that has united time and time again in the face of countless acts of terror—when the leader of that country talks about its people using the rhetoric of division, hate and hierarchy, then perhaps the media is justified in its attacks.

We all have heard about Donald Trumps’ views on immigration, his plans to both prevent incoming peoples and to deport those already living here. We have heard him speak poorly of Muslims, lumping a vast and diverse community into a box with no regard for the greater thread of humanity that unites us all. We have heard him speak of women in a way that threatens to shatter every monumental gain that women have made in this country to date. These sentiments would create uproar coming from any citizen, but to come from a person with access to the highest position of power in the country is utterly lamentable.

What we must remember is that America has long been regarded as a “melting pot” of human culture, socioeconomic background, race, religion, gender affiliation, and values. Each citizen, with the exception of the Native American population, is in reality an immigrant to this country. But isn’t that what makes this country so beautiful? The ability to learn from different views, to have intellectual conversations about those views, to thread together the pieces of each culture and create a magnificent quilt that binds all peoples.

And yet it is no secret that this nation still experiences fears regarding things that are ‘different.’ Hate is merely a derivative of fear. We hate because we fear what we do not know. Despite our melting pot culture, the elite continue to maintain a similar appearance: white, upper class, male. And this is not to say that this particular demographic is a bad demographic. This is a demographic that defines my uncles, my cousins, my friends, my heroes, my mentors, my leaders. This is a demographic that I love as well as any other. But the truth is that this demographic generally experiences more rights, more freedom, more economic stability, and even more respect from this nation than others.

I have a personal vendetta against inequality in this nation. Because while my exterior affords me the privileges bestowed upon the white elite of this country, my interior runs thick with the blood of my Indian ancestors. I am the result of an unconventional love, a child of a multiracial union, and a derivation of immigration.

My father left his home, his family, his friends, his life in India to come to a country that promised innumerable opportunities. He tells of boarding a plane with a mere eight dollars in his pocket, an eight dollars that came to symbolize what hard work, dedication, and the right conditions can produce. An eight dollars that, via the catalyst of America, has helped him support his family here, his family in India, and countless patients that he treats every day as a physician.

It is true that this campaign has brought about good discussion. It is also true that the campaign has shown division in our nation. Regardless of what the president elect actually means versus what the media portrays or exemplifies, we cannot ignore the hate that has been generated as a response in less than a week after the election: graffiti in the form of swastikas, vandalism in high schools telling certain students to ‘go back to Africa,’ etc, etc, etc...

And so much of what is rightfully being said now is that regardless of the election outcome we must support our President. Though I usually would agree wholeheartedly with this in order to promote a safe and effective nation bound by the unity, musn’t we first demand that our president-elect clearly and explicitly denounce hate, bigotry, division, and injustice before we offer our support to the leader of the free world? For if I am to support the president elect, I demand to know that his intentions are in harmony with the constitutional basis of this country, the notion that we are all equal and all deserve a chance at pursuing our dreams.

Take from this what you will. Argue with me. Chastise me. Question me. But allow me to have these opinions just as you yourself have your own opinions. Allow yourself to be questioned and allow yourself to question others. We are each, all of us, entitled to our own beliefs.

We are each correct in our own beliefs.