You might have heard it somewhere within the past year that Donald Trump is running for president. In fact, if you haven’t heard about it, then you’ve probably been living under a rock. And with the way that the GOP presidential race is currently going, I don’t blame you for it. I have continuously asked myself how Trump has made it this far in the race, while saying half the things he does. Although this is America, and everyone is entitled to their opinions, I think that we are forgetting what the President of the United States represents.
To every other country, the President represents America. He or she will represent our ideals, our morals. When ambassadors and other world leaders make decisions about Americans, they will look to the President of the United States, because we elected him or her to represent us.
Think about it this way. If you were to own a company, and were looking to hire someone, you would not hire the person who when you interviewed them, insulted over half of your employees. Donald Trump has insulted more than half our employees. He has insulted Muslims, Mexicans, women, people with disabilities, and various other people. Is that the type of person you want to add to your workforce? I don’t think so. That person would not be a good team player.
I’ve heard people say, “Trump is the candidate that says what everyone else is thinking, but no one else is willing to say.” But I can tell you that I would never even think of doing this:
Is that an action that represents America in a positive light? I would hope that you don’t hesitate to say no. America is a country where freedom of speech is one of our most prominent ideals, but while there is freedom of speech, that does not mean you should scream “fire” in a building that isn’t burning. It does not mean that you should bully people out of some form of hate either. We do not want to be the next country that incites hate instead of love and fear instead of safety. There are enough places in the world that already do that, America should not be one of them.
America is a country that is made up of people from all over the world. Everyone in America has had family that’s from some other country. When you have a person running for the presidency who wants to put a wall between countries and prevent people from different countries from immigrating to America, then you take away what makes us American. You take away what the Statue of Liberty stands for and the poem by Emma Lazarus that is associated with it, “Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, The wretched refuse of your teeming shore. Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me, I lift my lamp beside the golden door!”
If Donald Trump becomes President of the United States, I will not look upon the United States with pride or dignity, as we project ourselves to the rest of the world with a person that represents us by insulting our own citizens and many other countries. Instead, I will be embarrassed. And for those of you that choose to elect him, when hundreds of thousands of people who moved to this country to feel safe move out because they no longer do, I hope eventually you’ll have the decency to feel that way too.