*DISCLAIMER: This is strictly an opinion piece. I do not intend to offend anyone whose views may differ from mine.*
To the men and women who make up our current congressional body:
It's been an eventful past few weeks, hasn't it? 2016 ended, there was a slight transition in the White House between our 44th president and a toddler who has gotten into a Costco-sized bag of Cheetos while his nanny wasn't paying attention, Beyoncé announced that she's having twins; all completely startling events. Now, while I'm sure that these past few weeks have been so exciting for all of you, I've also noticed that MANY of you seem to have had, how do I put this gently, an appalling loss of basic senses of judgement and character and a seemingly shocking evacuation of any regards to anything close to being called "moral fiber". Now, this does not go for all of you. Some of you are as irritated and irate as the MAJORITY of the American people are currently, to which I say, keep it up. Raise hell. Stay caffeinated. KEEP GOING. This letter isn't directed to you. No, this letter goes out to all those who either don't care about their choices, or who are trying to set our wonderful country back into the 1940's.
I may come off as a bit biased. And I admit, I may be. I tend to lean left in my views, not because I don't love Jesus enough or have a deep seated fascination with firearms or Kid Rock, but because I believe in the importance of PEOPLE, and the importance of this little blue ball that we're currently residing on in the absolute blackness of outer friggen space. So there may be a few reasons why I am a bit upset.
"Oh, there goes another snowflake", you may say. See, here's the thing about that. I'm not a "snowflake." I'm not one of these people that gets on tumblr and fights their battles with hashtags behind a keyboard, or talks smack over twitter because they can't do actual confrontation face to face. I'm not a millennial. I'm a gen-Xer, I do things a tad bit differently.
I'm going to explain to you some of these missteps you've allowed to happen, because apparently, you've either buried your heads too deep in the sand or another damp place I cannot mention on this forum, or you've seemingly learned nothing through American History (hell, some of you LIVED through a lot of this history, so you would think the lesson stands out).
First off, I am as American as you are. I love this country, as crazy as it may be. That being said, I admit that I am not 100% American, and neither are any of you. American is not a race. Somewhere along the lines in the past, your parents or grandparents or great-grandparents, etc., either came to this country as a couple or met their SO's here, and continued their genetic lines. Do you know what they were? Eventually citizens, yes, but before that, they were people known as IMMIGRANTS. The people OUR ENTIRE COUNTRY was FOUNDED FROM. The people our current elected leader is trying to keep out (which is extremely ironic looking at his family history). And why? Because they're "terrorists"? No. If you look at all the "terrorist" attacks that have happened in the US since 9/11, and you look at the 7 countries that are almost (because this ban isn't even close to working) blocked off, you'll notice that those who have harmed our country aren't even close to the list of the 7 nations. Rather, they're from nations we're still friendly with. Think there may be a reason behind that? Just saying.
Now, back to the whole immigrant thing: Imagine where you would be if your ancestors had been stopped at the gate and sent back home. Oh, wait, you wouldn't be here. That's a shame. So, in order to exist, immigrants had to come in, make their lives here, fight and struggle and become successful, all in order for you to essentially punch your ancestors in the face with this ridiculous proposal. I hope they see your choices.
Second and finally, I've read about a lot of these laws that are getting repealed. I understand that many of you didn't agree with our most recent president. He was, before getting voted in, a LAWYER. Now, for those who don't know or have forgotten what that profession IS, it's someone whose JOB it is to make sure laws WORK. SO, I'm pretty sure that he knew what he was doing when he passed those laws. But sure, let the reality star take a crack at them. Let the gun law prohibiting those with mental disorders from purchasing firearms go into the trash, see what happens. Waste billions of dollars on a wall that won't work. Let the banks crash again. A lot of us haven't forgotten what the early 2000s were like, so this should be fun.
For many of you, I would advise growing a backbone. I understand that money in your pockets is nice, but I can assure you that, if the current road continues its current path, you may be out of a job VERY soon.
Sincerely,
A Concerned American Citizen