The Virtues that Formed It

Power. It’s a word with a mis conceptually negative connotation. Discrimination. I believe this word is perceived to be “bad” and I won’t deny it isn’t.

I don’t like to talk about politics on this blog...I believe there are other things to post about. Yet Trump’s recent presidency has led to much controversy. This past week, he passed an executive order preventing people from 7 different countries–Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, and Yemen from entering the U.S. for 90 days in order to change immigration screenings, not to mention 120 days for refugees. According to Wall Street Journal, this was ordered for the purpose of “detecting individuals with terrorist ties and stopping them from entering the United States.” Many people have been on planes and have been detained from entering the U.S. They have spent hours on a plane, only to be turned back onto the next departing flight.  For me, this is straight up discrimination against those seven countries, and a religion.

The United States was founded on our diversity. Freedom of religion is constitutionally protected. Discrimination is what tears the world apart. The results of discrimination elicit poor, marred and certainly false images about people. It wrongly ostracizes groups of people, and the world misses out chances to improve and further develop when we cut out groups of people. And this is where power comes into play.

There is power in our voices. There have been protests around the United States these past weeks. Voices driving social change is what founded this country. It feels like a step back to me, these past few months, as this nation struggles to remember the virtues that formed it.