I like to think that I spend a lot of time thinking before I state my opinion on things. I don't like to be quick to judge, and it's important to me that I consider my words before I speak. In light of recent events, I thought that I would shed some light on a matter that has been close to my heart as of late.

I'll start out with a quick statement: it's not okay to take kids from their parents. Recently, the issues of families being separated from their parents has become very big in the news. I don't know all the details, but the gist of it is that families have been illegally crossing the border, parents are taken away as criminals, and kids are taken elsewhere away from their parents. Ironically, in my life I've seen a multitude of children of American citizens kept in homes where their parents are abusive and/or neglectful. What kind of government allows a child to stay in a home where they are physically beaten or not receiving proper nutrition but takes away children from loving parents who only want the best future for their children?

Perhaps you think that this situation is okay because the immigrants who are entering this country are doing so illegally. I realize this is a commonly used defense, but have you considered the fact that we aren't exactly natives ourselves? The greatest contribution the original immigrants had towards this country was a myriad of new diseases and land theft. But you're probably right. We should just wave our Confederate flags, sing "God Bless America," and celebrate our victory of proving that well-educated and well-armed white people are smarter and stronger than the impoverished minorities that don't have access to such amenities.

Who made it our right to decide who could come into and out of a country? We love to brag about being the land of the free, but as soon as someone seeks shelter and freedom, we take it upon ourselves to deny them that basic human right. Might I quote our own Declaration of Independence and say that

"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness."

Might I point out that it does not say "all men (that were lucky enough to be born within our borders) are created equal." It says men. Period. As in ALL HUMANS. If you want to make it illegal for endangered people to come to this country to make a better life for themselves and pursue liberty and their own happiness, go ahead. You might just want to, I don't know, rewrite the documents that our country was founded on (P.S. These are the same documents that allow you to keep those militarized weapons that you definitely need in your home).

I'll leave alone my rant on turning away immigrants for now and return to my primary rant of separating children from their families. I'm sure in your history classes in grade school you were told time and time again "we learn history so that history doesn't repeat itself" or something along those lines. You know what we're doing right now by allowing our government to take children away from their families? I'd say it's something like allowing the Nazi's to separate families all over again. Except this time the Jews are natives of Central America, the ideal Arian race is Americans, and our fearless Führer has a spray tan and a bleached out combover. Whether you're Republican or Democrat isn't the issue here folks. What really matters is if you're going to allow the government that is running our country to inch closer and closer towards the dictatorship of Nazi Germany.

I believe that in our heart of hearts, humans can differentiate right from wrong. Kids belong with their parents. As long as it's a loving environment, it's the best environment for them to grow up in. We've taken a land that was not our own and forced out individuals who only want the same basic human rights that we take for granted. We complain that these people will "take our jobs," but then we refuse to fill the positions that these individuals would be taking. America has become a bully. We want to push our laws and our beliefs onto everyone else because we think our way is the best way. We're making mistakes that we've already seen have led to such tragedies as the Holocaust, yet our pride has blinded us such that we refuse to look at the whole picture. Maybe I've hurt your feelings with this article. I don't care. I feel that these things needed to be said, and I'm taking my stance. I just hope that one day we can reach a place where we're tearing down walls instead of building them and reuniting families instead of ending them.