Hello everybody. I'd like to tell you all a little bit about how I see our country today.

Some of you probably feel the same way I do, some of you might hate everything I have to say, and others might just be confused. That's all okay! What's important is that we hear and understand others' ideas and perspectives, because I think we can all agree that THAT is not happening in our country today. Well, let’s see, the country seen by me, Emma, the 18-year-old.

I’m a liberal. Like, really liberal. When I registered to vote, I registered as Independent. I don't really know what I could have possibly been thinking, but this was a while ago, so don’t judge too hard. I’m a different Emma now. I guess I went independent because I wasn’t too sure where I stood and my parents were Republicans and I thought, “hmm, maybe I am too, but I don’t know, so independent it is.”

WRONG. Pretty sure there’s no part of me that’s Republican, actually. So that’s always fun at family parties when your dad’s side is ridiculously conservative, and I mean ridiculous (like woo Trump), and then your mom’s side is also super conservative (let's run America like a business) but a few are all about rights and fighting the power. I guess where I’m going with this is I was brought up with very different views than what I actually have, and I think that’s pretty cool.

Now, I’m not saying that my parents are necessarily like this. They’re all about love who you want and basically just be a good person and you’re set, but we have very different views on other things, aligning myself as Democrat and them as Republican.

I’ll give you a breakdown of my views of what I’m particularly passionate about- get ready, here we go.

1. LGBTQ+ Rights

Why does it matter who you love? I find it ridiculous that people actually think they can have a say in who someone else loves and wants to marry or be with. Truly, if you can tell me, why does it matter? I want to know. How exactly does it affect you? The fact that Obergefell is a relatively recent case is partly ridiculous to me, because why did it take so long to acknowledge that love is love, no matter who it’s between? What’s even more ridiculous to me though, is that PEOPLE ARE STILL FIGHTING THIS! GET OVER YOURSELF AND FIGURE OUT THAT YOUR OPINION DOESN’T MATTER WHEN IT AFFECTS SOMEONE ELSE’S HAPPINESS AND LIFE. I guess you can say I sort of feel strongly about this subject.

2. Immigration

I think there’s a reason the American Dream exists and people think the United States is the greatest country in the world. If you agree or not, many people feel this way, especially those that have such a terrible lifestyle in their own country that they want to get out. And if everyone is supposed to be able to follow the American dream, who are we to stop them? Yes, it’s “our” country, and we need to take care of “our” people first. Okay. I get that. There’s the argument that "how can we help immigrants when we can’t even help the veterans or poor people in 'our own' country?" I get that too. I really do. But what I think is that we should be helping everyone, and when we focus on “our own” people, we forget that we’re ALL people. The fact that our current president thinks it’s okay to ban immigration from certain countries (yes, this is a Muslim ban, sorry Trump), is mind blowing to me. We need to act like humans if we want this world to function. And yes, of course, there’s the argument that “what about the people that won’t function like humans, we can’t risk that”. But you know what, at the end of the day there’s a whole lot more people looking for help than there are looking for destruction, and if we keep an open mind, I think we’d be much better off.

3. Religion and the Government

These things should be so separate they shouldn’t even be in the same sentence. Who are you to govern or want legislation or decide court cases based off of a belief you hold? It’s your belief, and probably a lot of other people’s too. I respect that. However, when you try to impose YOUR belief on other people, we have an issue. Believe what you want, whether it’s a God, or Gods, or none at all, but don’t expect your faith to dictate the lives of others.

4. Taxes

I’m going to keep this brief: if you have millions of dollars, you shouldn’t be paying the same taxes as someone who is making minimum wage.

5. Voting

I think voting is your right, and everyone should be able to do it. Who are you to say you don’t count and can’t have a voice, based on education level or social ranking? Obviously being informed is a good thing, and it's encouraged that voters are, but if you want to say “Trump is an alien", even though you’re clearly uninformed (but are you really), that’s your right.

Voter ID laws are a whole other issue. How exactly can someone vote if they can’t put food on their table if they even have a table? Good question! They can’t. Funny story, you can only vote with a federally distributed ID. But those cost money. And not everyone has money. Hmm, that’s a problem. But you know, not as much of a problem as voter fraud, which happens a whole .000005% of the time. That’s super critical, and it’s not as important that citizens get to exercise their right to vote as much as we protect the country from fake votes.

6. Earth

We have one planet. Why on earth (pun intended) would we want to forget about it and let it die? Maybe it’s just me, but I’d rather stay here than move to Mars where there’s not even air we could breathe. Call me crazy. We have so many opportunities to make change happen- solar, wind, water, you name it, energy. Yet, we don’t do this. Why? I really don’t know. We should, no, need, to change before it’s too late. Oh, climate change is real people.

So, that’s how I feel about stuff that is pretty important to me and I’m pretty passionate about. Basically, in conclusion, I feel that no matter where you come from, what you look like, or who you are, you’re still a person. I find it really hard to believe that there is so much fighting and destruction and hate in our world. I truly don’t understand why we do this. We have one Earth to live on together, why not protect it? We are part of the same human race, why not love each other? Some people may say I’m ignorant or naive, and maybe they’re right, but I’d like to believe that there is good in this world, and there are people looking for it and wanting to give it, so why not be one of those people?

Hopefully you can agree, disagree, hate, love, or just plain old connect with something I said. I hope it resonates. Just remember, we're all people so why not get along? Oh yeah, and climate change is actually a thing.