About a week ago, a naked Trump statue was placed in Union Square, New York City. People from all over the places came running to the park, because they wanted to see a naked portrayal of their presidential candidate. Think about this for a second. A billionaire, who is now running for office in the White House, became a subject of nude jibes that are meant to be funny for 13 year olds. Interesting.

While observing the situation, this seemingly mean joke got me thinking about how and why such a man could go from a billionaire who was a paragon of brilliant business mind, to a laughing stock for the entire world. Despite knowing about Trump’s candidature in a while now, and despite knowing what the majority of the people think about him, it only got to me yesterday, why Donald Trump will never be accepted as a true and a worthy candidate for the office. Office that was once held by John F. Kennedy and Abraham Lincoln.

United States Of America was built on a notion of welcoming all the people from around the world to its lands, and offering them a chance to start anew. New beginnings. Land of the free. The image of Statue of Liberty warmly welcoming thousands of migrants every year and offering all of them a chance to start better, is still an image deeply instilled into the minds of humanity. Since the first day that it was founded, U.S. offered a chance to build your own farm, conduct your own business, manufacture the land, and build your own life. Without restrictions and with knowing that no one will interfere with your work, solely on the basis of your descent.

And yet in 2016, Donald Trump comes out, and runs for president. At first glance there is nothing wrong with that prospect. But as time passed by, and his policies unfolded in front of us, the gold-haired billionaire with anything-but-good haircut running for office, seemed like a very bad idea. Radical and extremely conservative, Trump’s outlook on immigration, Islam, and simply put-tolerance, turned out to be as far right as it could get.

I’m not saying that being overly tolerant and having no restrictions is a good thing. In my opinion, a far left liberal can lead to much worse results than a far right conservative. But I also do not think that simply saying ‘’We should banish Muslims from America’’ is the right answer. Sure, there might be some radical Muslims who have caused trouble. But there are also Muslims who have brought immense joy to all the people through their work. Yes, that mostly but not only applies to Snoop Dogg, Muhammad Ali, Mike Tyson, and Shaquille O’Neal. The point is that, without Muslims, America would have not witnessed the magic of Shaq, the toughness of Mike Tyson and Muhammad Ali, and to this day, would have not known to ‘’Drop it like it’s hot’’. Bottom line, as obvious as it may be, is that not all Muslims are bad, just like not all of them are once in a lifetime athletes and artists like the ones mentioned above. And despite not having a solution as simple as we want it to be, simply prohibiting Muslims to enter America is wrong.

There are many problems with the United States. There are many problems with immigrants as well. Purposely not seeing these complications is a bad decision to make. Ignorance leads to gruesome results. But there has to be a fine line drawn somewhere between ignorance and radicalism. This, of course, is easier said than done. I don’t think it’s feasible to a 100 percent. But blaming the system, blaming Trump, blaming all the Muslims, and blaming each other is as futile as it gets. Donald Trump is not a bad candidate. He’s not a perfect one either. But the blatant repetition of thoughts about Trump’s inability to run the country, is fraught with complications and contradictions at a number of levels.

I am writing this, as I’m sitting at the table in the backyard of my uncle’s house in New Jersey. I am writing this, knowing that when I depart for college in a few days, I will be welcomed and treated properly, just like my uncle did when he first got here. And I know, that in 20, maybe 30 years from now, I will still be thinking and maybe even writing with the same outlook. Knowing for a fact, that my deep desire to succeed in this country will never be sedated and even more so, will never be fought against. Because there is a set of ideals, on which America was built on. Because this is a country of free enterprise, the place where you have all the freedom of choice, to do what you want for living, and be who you want. And that right there, is the key set of words. Freedom of choice. It is a complicated notion which needs careful thought. But when understood correctly, it brings the ultimate joy that we all dream of when thinking about freedom.