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Mar 23, 2016

Poison.

I don't typically talk publicly about politics. It's so unbelievably frustrating. But I finally can't stand it any longer. I've been working on this post for awhile,  and I think it's about time I put it out there. I'm not going to tell anyone who to vote for. But I have to express what I seen.

Now, you may be having some thoughts run through your head like, "what does she know? Millennials are too young to really know what they're talking about". Allow me to answer that question and defend myself. Many people know that I've been in college for 4 years now. As my last post said, I just turned 23. Yet, I still have 2 years of college left. And why is that? Well, it took me a long time to decide what I wanted to do with my life, to "find my calling".

However, I'll be the first to tell you that I don't think the last four years have been wasted. Not in the slightest. I frequently tell people I have a very well-rounded education. And I firmly believe that. For about a year of my college career, I was a political science major. Interesting coming from someone who just said they hate politics and talking about politics, right? In my classes, we didn't just sit there debating policy and which political leaders we thought were the best and why. Instead, we learned about political theories. We were given scenarios and acted as countries for several weeks, practicing things like foreign policy, trade, economics and basically everything that comes with being a country.

After my year studying political theory, both international and domestic, I transferred to BYU, and then turned to the business school. Every business student is required to take several prerequisites before they apply to the business school, and one of those I found to be inexplicably more valuable than the others: Economics.

So, what gives me the right, besides being an American citizen over the age of 18, to have an opinion on who should or shouldn't run our country? My education. My experiences. I've spent the last four year studying the very things these politicians are debating about. That doesn't mean I have all of the answers and solutions to our problems. It means I understand how complicated political situations are. It means I understand economic implications, foreign policy, domestic policy, and that little thing we're supposed to remember and learn from: history.

On top of my education, I've travelled. And I've felt and seen things that only those who have travelled can understand. We can take pictures and try to explain it, but something happens to you that those who haven't travelled can't understand. In general. I'll leave room for a few exceptions. When you travel, you see how other people live. You experience their culture. You begin to understand them. Most importantly, you see them for what they are: people.

There's a term that I learned in my days as a poli-sci major, and it's one of my favorite words/concepts. It's the word "othering". Othering is when you divide yourself from other people. It's when an "us vs. them" situation is created. This is a very dangerous concept because you stop seeing them as people. You see them as the enemy. And sometimes, they may be. But when you other, you cut off all opportunity for understanding. You breed hate and fear. And that is one of the most dangerous things that can happen.

In fact, I'd say two of the most dangerous things we face socially as humans are othering and ignorance.

These are the two things that Donald Trump thrives on. I have read countless first-hand accounts of the discrimination and danger that anyone who opposes him faces at his rallies. Black. White. Peaceful. Violent. These people are literally having their rights taken away. The sad thing though, is that it's not typically the protesters that are violent. It's the members of the crowd that they have to walk past as they exit.

I love Humans of New York. Also known as HONY if you live under a rock. I love the stories that are told there. I love that they allow me to see things and people with a different perspective and open mind. Well, Brandon Stanton, the writer and genius behind HONY wrote the following open letter to Donald Trump, and I fully support everything he says in it. So I'm just going to leave it right here:


An Open Letter to Donald Trump:Mr. Trump,I try my hardest not to be political. I’ve refused to interview several of...
Posted by Humans of New York on Monday, March 14, 2016


Please, I beg you. If you're considering voting for Trump, open your eyes. Stop listening to his blanket statement promises, have an open mind, and watch what's happening. Read first hand accounts of what's happening. They're not coming from the news, which if you're like me, you typically shrug off as bias and one-sided anyways. They're coming from people just like you. People with lives and families. People who are scared for the future of this country, and rightfully so. People who are fellow Americans. People who, though they may have a religion different than yours that you don't understand, are striving to live their lives in the way that their conscience tells them is right and they believe will bring them closer to God. Stop associating anyone of a particular group with the extremists of that group. Because the people who carrying out the attacks in Boston, California, Paris, and Belgium, are not true followers of Islam. If they were, they'd be sharing a message of peace, not carrying out violence.

Finally, I'm just going to end with this....

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