There have been countless articles and news stories covering from when Donald Trump first announced he would be running to his actions over the past few days since he was inaugurated as the 45th president of the United States of America. I feel it’s about time that I weighed in on the subject. Recently I published an article on the fact that I just became a US citizen (Link), and I come from a very diverse background with roots all over the globe, including Mexico. A large majority of my extended family still lives in Mexico, and while I don’t quite feel connected to it anymore I care about what happens there. Needless to say, I am in the thick of all of this, and I only have one reaction: disappointment.
To start off I’m gonna explain the more unexpected angle of my disappointment, which is toward my fellow liberals. I’ve never been a fan of activism in the popular sense of the word, where people go out in large masses holding signs with witty or impactful one-liners because I don’t truly believe that they are accomplishing anything other than placing the title “whiny” on your cause. But, I do understand that those actions are all some people can afford to do, and honestly they are ok. It is more than reasonable, heck it’s even expected to have an emotional response (I sure know I had one) but everything has its limits. The moment that your actions start to impact bystanders or people who have done nothing to deserve it is when I say you’ve crossed the line. A recent example is the video that has been circling the web about a rally in the library at the University of Washington (Video). Some people are trying to continue with their lives as normal, and unintelligent planning such as putting your rally in a LIBRARY can cause them to be disturbed.
This is a rather tame example, but there were also videos playing on the news of riots all over the country, which included the destruction of public and private property for no reason other than the spur of the moment. The night of the inauguration I went out on a walk with a group of friends, and I heard a man yelling “screw America!” at another person in a car at a stop light without any aggravation. There are an insane number of instances of useless, unnecessary and even straight-up stupid actions that are going to have no change on the grand scale.Yet, they could negatively impact people who should not even be involved, and that is why I’m disappointed at the people who share my beliefs on a basic level.
On to the more believable disappointment, I’m disappointed at the lack of foresight and/or hindsight present in all the people who believe that we are heading in the right direction right now. I keep telling myself that we are all human and that while we are capable of stubbornness, we are also capable of understanding. I keep hoping that the facts will start to sink in and I keep hoping beyond hope that Donald Trump starts to listen. And yet we keep heading in the opposite direction. News reports keep giving dismal information, such as a member of the cabinet meeting with the leader of the Neo-Nazi movement. There are also the plans to move forward with the construction of the wall despite the retraction of the intent to build it earlier on in the campaign. Statistically speaking, there is very little that can be accomplished by a president in 4 years, and with the chance to win back Congress in 2018 (link if you’re interested in helping ) there was the semblance of hope that things wouldn’t change too drastically.
What really shattered my belief that things wouldn’t change was the news story of Shia Labeouf, an openly Jewish man, being arrested after retaliating at a man who said, “Hitler did nothing wrong.” The arrest is not what disturbs me, the police were only doing their job. Rather the fact that we live in a time where people are now openly expressing beliefs such as those of that man, and that every day the actions of the Trump administration remind us of dark times are driving my disappointment. There is no point getting angry because then you act irrationally. There is no point getting sad or sultry because then you do nothing or appear whiny. If you let someone know you’re disappointed at them, they (or at least I) often do a double take as they reassess why there would be disappointment.
We live in a confusing time. It’s hard to know what news is legitimate and which is simply a clickbait to falsified information. More and more signs are shown of a regression to a dark time. All I can say is that there is no reason to let this change the way you act. Don’t enclose yourself your room or become cruel and dark to those around you, because that is going to accomplish nothing other than making your life even worse. Watch the events play out, and do as much as you can within reason, but otherwise, continue to live as though tomorrow is just as bright as it used to be.
