I'm worried about America. I'm worried that we are getting distracted from the real issues that are facing us. This fall on the Mizzou campus, protesters forced their president to resign. Whether he should or shouldn't have is really not the point of this. During some protests, students set up "safe spaces" that were to be free of the media and people with opposing viewpoints.
Uh, I don't really think that's how the First Amendment works. Denying racism still exists today would be dumb, and protesting against it on a college campus is a good thing. That's what the focus should be on. It should be set on fixing the underlying problem. It should not be about shutting down opposing viewpoints and denying media the right to do their job. The First Amendment goes both ways.
Recently, at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, a student government member was asked to resign after she made chalk drawings on campus in support of Donald Trump. Now, I disagree with Trump on almost every single issue, but again, that's not how the First Amendment works. The United States Constitution applies to all points of view. Going away to college should be a time to hear different opinions, not a time to shut anything down that disagrees with you.
The media plays a terrible role in encouraging this distraction. They refuse to cover the issues but instead focus on what bad word Trump said this week. Really? That's what we're going to go after Donald Trump for? Of all the things he has said, probably the least important is his use of profanity. Instead of covering the fact that he uses words that nearly every American also uses, how about we cover some of his stances on policy such as when he advocated for bombing innocent civilians on purpose?
We get caught up in a lot of things that really don't matter. Donald Trump might actually be right when he says America is too "politically correct." That is one thing I do like about him. Unfortunately, most of the time, his problem isn't with being politically correct — it's with being correct in general. Most people do not like politics because it has turned into a soap opera in which the media baits people into attacking their opponent. America is a cool country because everyone gets to have opinions and we should never engage in shutting those opinions down. If we stopped worrying about petty stuff and started focusing on the issues that matter, then we would have a much more vibrant democracy. But until then, I'll continue to worry.
