Earlier today I was listening to Strangers, a podcast hosted by Lea Thau, and the episode was about her becoming a citizen of America after living here for twenty something years. At the same time I was reading a blog from a 25 year old female living in South Carolina, (I’m not citing her name or site) who is voting for trump. In her blog she was listing the main reasons why she is choosing him on November 8th. Lea spoke about her trepidations of becoming an American in her podcast and said her main reason was so she could vote. She wasn’t able to vote in her country because she was not living there and was not a citizen here, but what I took from it, what really moved me about the episode was the end. She talked about how many different nations were represented in that room becoming US citizens. It got me thinking, with everything going on in this country, the election being at the fore front and what is being said by presidential candidates and what’s being said in the media.

Going back to the blog I was reading, it made me sad to think there were people born here thinking they had more rights then someone who comes here and becomes a citizen. Because you were lucky enough to be born here they had some inferior right to look down on people who come here to live the “American Dream.” I feel embarrassed for people like her. To be born in this country and have the privileges bestowed upon us at birth and then turn away people who are in places where militia out rules or works along with local police to keep violence alive and thriving in certain parts of the world is not what America stands for. Yet everywhere you look today there are people condemning people for the actions they say and do. Somehow we went from being a country of minding business to a country of minding ‘yours’. Everyone is so interested in what “you’re doing” they stopped looking inward. They have stopped looking at how to improve there social prognosis and have dove into tearing apart their neighbor.

We used to be a nation of helping people. There is more turmoil, more people loosing everything they have outside of these borders and it is duty as humans to help them. If that means allowing them into this country then so be it.

When it comes to an election year people become heated on certain issues, as if the candidates they vote for actually care what the American public think or want. I would like to think that they have America at heart. It might not always be in light of the public but at the end of the day we can close our eyes peacefully and sleep a night without anything but an alarm clock going off in our sleep. Every human being deserves thesesame rights. If they can longer live in their homes because of something outside there scope of fixing, (war, terrerism, religion) then they should be welcome here. One of the biggest strengths in america is our diversity. Lea came here from in her twenties and she has in someway or another contributed to american culture. She has inspired people through her podcast. She does not use her platform to tear people down. I wish I could say the same about the girl living in her tiny bubble in  South Carolina.