Hey there, reader! How’s your day been? Where I’m at, it was nice, almost like spring! In fact, it was unseasonably warm, as sunshine replaced what’s usually snow and ice this time of year, and it has been throughout the entire nation! This is likely due to global warming, which in this nation apparently doesn’t exist, as Donald Trump withdrew from the Paris Climate Agreement to reduce greenhouse gas emissions that contribute to our melting planet’s drastically changing climate. The United States is the only nation in the world who is not a part of this proactive pact. Why? Because according to Trump and many other simple-minded/greedy politicians, climate change is a “hoax.” It’s not.
If you came to this site looking for fashion or weak attempts at humor (did you even read the title?!?), you came to the wrong place. It’s about to get political, my peeps.
You see, anyone with eyes, ears, or a brain knows that this disgusting ecological blunder on the part of the US is sadly just one of many grains of sand sifting faster and faster through the hourglass of our nation’s reputation and stability. Just recently, off the top of my head, Donald Trump has engaged in a backseat game of nuclear proportions of “I’m not touching you” with North Korea’s Kim Jong Un (over Twitter), claimed that reputable news sources are “fake news” while the obviously biased Fox News is in the clear (over Twitter), and decided that transgender people should no longer be able to serve in the military (over Twitter, without informing the actual military firsthand). He’s also attacked black football players, Muslims, the NFL, Beyonce, Meryl Streep, Hillary Clinton, Elizabeth Warren, Saturday Night Live, and many more, while at the same time endorsing a child molester for senate to get Republican majority and to help carry out his creepy, disgusting agenda (all over Twitter, of course). Also, let’s not forget he’s trying to defund planned parenthood, deport 800,000 Mexican-American adults who came to the states illegally as children, skyrocket insurance premiums for the low income, elderly, and those with preexisting conditions, cut $10.6 billion of federal public school funding from the national budget, make health care an optional expense for large employers, and diminish the acreage of some our nation’s favorite public lands. He also is credited to have said that some alt-right protestors (Nazis) are good people and that he can “grab women by the pussy.” Oh, and he and his administration are also under national investigation for having colluded with Russia to sway the results of the 2016 presidential election. And those are just off the top of my head.
So, more or less, unless you are so privileged that none of these things apply to you at all, it might be time for you to start giving a shit about politics.
During the 2016 election season, I was shocked and surprised by many of my acquaintances and friends’ political attitudes. If you haven’t caught on by now, I’m rather liberal, and was pro-HIll from the start (largely due to some deep-seeded love of Bill Clinton), so naturally I was annoyed by all of the Trump supporters on my Facebook feed (especially the “lesser of two evils” people; like please just admit you’re racist). However there was a larger group that bothered me a little more: those that were completely and utterly apathetic. There was some pretty shady, concerning shit that went on during the campaign season, and I had lots of friends that had absolutely no opinion on it. In fact, many of them didn’t even vote in the first election we’ve ever been able to vote in. A year later, after all of the bad things I listed in the paragraph above happened (and more), there’s still no opinion. No calling senators, no comments piped up in class, no Twitter likes on one side or the other, and not even a general knowledge of my favorite “Ted Cruz is the Zodiac Killer” meme.
Believe it or not, I’m generally a pretty chill, laid back person. I hate conflict. I actually am known to preach aloofness and not caring about most things. However, I do care about the decisions our leaders are made “on behalf” of us, not only on our home turf, but worldwide. It’s not like much of our happiness and lives are at stake or anything.
Here’s the thing: you don’t have to be a political science major to be politically minded. In fact, you really don’t have to try. You don’t have to do much research things to have an opinion on them (although in an ideal world you would); just read the news. If you’re not going to make your voice heard, at least be informed, if not for your own sake, do it for others. Privilege is perhaps the biggest thing that we take for granted in this society, and many, many people don’t have it. So challenge yourself and keep others in mind. It’s not hard: next time you see a tweet asking you to craft a text message for your senators on an important topic, at least retweet it. Stand up for marginalized groups. Be strong. Be compassionate. Be kind. Give a shit. And please, call your senators.