I used to be someone who hated talking about politics. I mean I would avoid it at all costs, but something recently changed and I’m glad it did. With this being the first year I could vote, I started paying attention more and growing my understanding of our country’s politics and how I believe things should be in our country. As I learned more, I got louder about my opinions, and right now I am at my loudest.
With our new president in office so much has been going on and its only April. Ever since he’s been re-elected, it’s like every day I wake up and there is a new breaking story about something he or his administration has done. I know politics aren’t everyone’s thing and not everyone pays attention to them but there’s been no escape from the headlines and news stories about everything going on. It’s terrifying in my opinion.
I don’t know if you’ve been paying attention but here’s a little list of the many things our president has done since being in office.
- Deported multiple citizens and those with valid visas to El Salvador (that is and has been overpopulated since before these deportations started). Also said he may begin sending “homegrown criminals” meaning U.S. citizens, while yes, he said criminals they are still citizens with constitutional rights.
- He created a “special investigation team” to find transgender athletes nationwide and ban them from their sport.
- He stopped the Justice Department from enforcing policies holding fossil fuel companies accountable. This is just the beginning of the downhill slide he has in store for our climate because he also ordered half of all of our national forests to be open for logging and possibly oil drilling.
These are only a few things, barley scraping the surface, of the many orders Trump has signed and put in place since being in office. This goes along with the things he’s done that he has been told not to, which breaks our government’s checks and balances.
The point of this week’s article is not to dive into all of this though. It’s to show what I am paying attention to and what I am speaking about. We live in a country where we have the right for our voices to be heard.
While at times I feel I’m not doing enough because I can’t go to these big, amazing protests, and all I’m doing is posting things on social media about what is happening, at least it is still something. Someone out there is seeing what I post and hopefully paying attention to it and understanding the severity of our situation. Even if I don’t have thousands or millions of followers, I at least have some who pay attention.
We can’t silence ourselves just because we don’t think we have a big enough platform or voice for people to pay attention. There is always someone listening, watching, reading, understanding and acting on what you say. Even if it’s one person, it’s not nobody. Let your voice be heard, let it ring out for everyone to hear, and the people that listen will do something with what you have to say.