Signs and posters from the protest the day after Trump's inauguration day, Jan. 21 2017, protesting his sexist, homophobic, Islamophobic, racist rhetoric.
It is an unprecedented time in America. On June 16, 2015, a businessman known for his explosive personality, lavish hotel chains and fascinating helmet of hair now stands on Capitol Hill as the figurehead and leader of our country. Donald J. Trump is accompanied by a “cabinet of horrors,” a Republican majority in the House and Senate for the first time in almost ninety years and rhetoric that has left many American citizens shaken and fearful.
On Jan. 20, 2017, a man took office who called all Mexicans rapists, who joked that you could grab women by their genitalia and who publicly stated he could shoot someone on the streets of New York without losing popularity. Our nation has never been so dramatically split by political party. Social stratifications and tensions that have been ignored and brushed aside as fake by the incoming administration are not-so-quietly rising to the surface. Foreign policy hangs in the balance, or perhaps simply in Russia’s lap.
It is an unprecedented time in America.
Historically, presidents-elect put forth a plan of action during the campaign that they will enact during the first 100 days of their presidency. Covered religiously by journalists, these plans (and what actually is accomplished) set the tone for the rest of their time in the White House. In his plan, titled “Donald Trump’s Contract with the American Voter,” which he released in October, Trump includes restarting construction on the Keystone Pipeline, cancelling all federal funding to sanctuary cities, cancelling “billions in payments” to climate change programs sponsored by the United Nations and instituting the “End Illegal Immigrations Act,” which includes his famous wall (and includes the detail that Mexico will be paying for it). Those actions are not even the half of it.
Even though most of us at the high school are below voting age, it is crucial that we remain aware of the dramatic changes reckoned to take place in our country and in our world. Over the next 100 days, I hope to share with you some of my opinions and ideas about the current political climate and what that means for us as young people. It’s true, we can not vote, but that by no means equates that we should be silent.