“Let us fight with love, faith and courage so that our families will not be destroyed.” – Sophie Cruz
As we all know, I spent four months abroad, traveling the world and meeting people from different countries, cultures, religions, and ethnicities. I spent four months being told over and over by my wonderful professors that you can’t group cultures together, you can’t single story people based on arbitrary facts like their race or religion or gender. I spent four months seeing that with my own eyes, seeing people of different ways of life living in one place and being lovely people, welcoming me into their home countries with no second glance.
And then I came home to be reminded of how small minded people can be. To be reminded that not everyone remembers all the lessons we had on not discriminating back in primary school. I’m sorry to my family who may not agree with my views, but I’m 18 now, I’m in college, and I’ve been all around the world by myself. I have my own opinions now.
You can argue that Trump is trying to protect US citizens from terrorists with the ban and that’s a Christian thing to do, but that’s not quite right. The fact is, most “terrorist” attacks in the US have been played out by Americans. The fact is the banned countries, Iraq, Syria, Iran, Sudan, Libya, Somalia, and Yemen, did not play a part in 9/11, or most other attacks since. The fact is many of the people affected are permanent US residents who now cannot return to the only home they’ve ever really known. The fact is the common denominator of most attacks in the US is guns, not foreign attackers. The 9/11 attacks were by citizens of Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Egypt, and Lebanon, none of which were part of the ban, likely because Trump has business deals with them. The Boston marathon bombers were Russian. The Charleston Church shooter was a US citizen. The Colorado Planned Parenthood shooter was a US citizen. The San Bernardino shooters were a US citizen and a Pakistani citizen. The Orlando shooter was a US citizen. The Ft. Lauderdale Airport shooter was a US citizen. The fact is, the people being banned entry have done nothing wrong.
The fact is if I learned anything from my religion, it’s to love one another.
A large amount of the people being affected are US residents, people with valid visas, and students who are studying here. There are university students out there just like me on F1 visas, trying to return to school from their breaks and visiting home and study abroad programs, and now they can’t come back. These people have legal documentation, have worked hard to get here. Had I been born in a Middle Eastern country, this could easily be me. That’s so scary.
We’re going back in time, not moving forward. What happened to accepting people even if you disagree with their values? Another plan that the President has is to make it legal to refuse to serve people based on their sexual orientation. LGBT parents will be able to not be allowed to adopt based on their sexual orientation, employers will be allowed to refuse to let people work for them, employees will be allowed to refuse service. The first amendment says “congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion…” However, that is what Trump is trying to do. He is attempting to make the United States a Christian Nation, but it isn’t. Therefore, you shouldn’t be allowed to discriminate based on your religious beliefs.
The whole world is not Christian, and that’s okay. It’s not okay to ruin people’s lives because of it. It’s not okay to not let people come back to their homes because of it. It’s not okay to not let loving parents adopt children who otherwise wouldn’t have a home because of it.
I have friends from the Middle East who are sweet and loving and kind. I have gay friends who are loyal and selfless and beautiful inside and out. But in the end, it doesn’t matter what labels they have. It doesn’t matter if they wear a headscarf, it doesn’t matter if they believe in God, it doesn’t matter if they don’t associate with the gender they were born with. None of this shapes their heart.
When I was in Morocco, I sat on a sand dune in the desert with two berbers, head scarfs and no shoes and all, who talked simply about how they love when Americans come to visit because they love to share their culture and learn about ours.
When I was in Senegal, a local man spoke for hours about the definition of happiness and about how he is stereotyped and how all he wants is a little porch under the stars to share with someone he loves.
Throughout my travels there were countless charming cab drivers, store vendors, and waiters from different cultures who accepted us, in our loud, boisterous American manner, and were so kind to us. And I hope if they ever come to visit us here, we can respect them in the same way.
Cities and Waves 