Thank You, Donald Trump (Yes, I'm Serious)
Dear Donald Trump,
Thank you for making America great again.
You really have — just not in the way you thought you would. America is not going to fall in line with your racist and bigoted ways, sporting “Trump’s the Best!” T-shirts. But things are in fact great right now.
Multiple generations have been inspired to pay close attention to what is happening within our government. We are finding ways to get involved and make our voices be heard through protests and petitions and contacting our elected legislators.
You may have come to power through smoke-and-mirrors promises, but you will not sit there comfortably signing executive order after executive order restricting the rights of your citizens. The majority of us did not vote for you, and we will fight tooth and nail to stop you from taking away our liberties.
When we see or hear something that we don’t agree with (or some alternative facts that your administration tries to pass off as truths), we act. I know that you do not agree with most of our actions (your Twitter feed tells us this!), but that is what makes America great.
The Bill of Rights gives us all the freedom to say what we believe. America’s Founding Fathers literally built in the First Amendment as a way to protect us from abuse of power. Isn’t that great?!
“Unalienable rights” and “the great rights of mankind” are how they referred to them. This means that you and I are protected by the same thing, as well as the New York Times, CNN, NBC, and any other news outlet that reports something that you disagree with. Just because you disagree with it, that does not make it fake. We are all guaranteed the freedom of speech and press — even if it is an unpopular expression — and are protected from government suppression or censorship.
The Bill of Rights guarantees that everyone in America be treated like a human being. What a novel idea. Allowing everyone to say what they want — even theirs happens to be an unpopular option. This unalienable right is what allows you to take to Twitter whenever the impulse strikes and basically yell at your citizens, like those times when the media says something critical of you, or you simply don’t agree with their factual reporting, or they publish a picture from the inauguration that you consider unflattering.
Personally, until this election, I was never too invested in what was going on politically. I own this fault, but now I cannot afford to go back to being apathetic. I believe in equality, but more importantly, I cannot believe that there are people who do not.
Women and men are equal and should be treated as such, from how much they are paid to the control they have over their bodies. LGBTQ individuals should have all of the same rights as heterosexual people. Why in the world shouldn’t everyone who wants to get married and have kids be able to? Muslims, Catholics, Jews, and everyone in between should feel welcome to embrace and practice their religion of choice within our borders, and those who do not hold religious beliefs should not be persecuted either. That is one of the reasons why people come to America.
“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.”
These rights are what make America great. Thank you, President Trump, for reminding America that we have these rights, and that thanks to our liberty, no one, not even you, can take them away.
