Monday, June 25, 2018

Why I Want My Gov’t To Succeed

All night I have been trying to get my brain to turn on to write for my current WIP. The only thing I was at all inspired to write was this blog. I fought it for hours. Literally 3. I have had mental and verbal arguments with myself over this topic and it always boils down to one simple truth.

If our gov’t fails, we all fail.

Why would anyone want that? I don’t understand it. 

I remember a time not to long ago when people could have open debates on either side of the isle and at the end of the day still remain friends. Now I feel like I am living in a world where I have to censor what I say, even around family. People who are supposed to love you unconditionally. Is that the America you want to live in? It certainly isn’t what I want to live in.

I get it ... the left HATES President Trump. The right ... they want to cut social welfare programs and that makes them cruel, they want to lock our borders up, that makes them heartless, and every item of clothing, scrap of hair or molecule they breathe in from the air is scrutinized.

As a child I wanted to grow up to be President. I dreamt of the day I would toss my hat into politics. I was so naive that I had no clue what I would be asking for if I actually followed that dream.

Thank God I Didn’t.

I remember in my senior year at Clear Brook High School in Friendswood Texas my Gov’t teacher was talking about the Clintons. The big sex scandal was still a hot topic and everyone was talking about THE DRESS! My gov’t teacher made a comment that has stuck with me for many many years. He said that the whole world was laughing at us over the President having a mistress. Not that he has one but that American’s are so bent out of shape over sex and scandals that we make things blow up over nothing.

That was in 2000. 

Well now 18 years later and our country is even worse than we were back then. The media makes our leaders look pathetic. They are seemingly more concerned with shocking and eye catching headlines than actual facts. Fake news is on a rapid increase and real legit news sources are on a decline.

And worst, the world is laughing harder. This time they look at us and want to protect their citizens from us. A country that used to be a center for hope is now an image of terror because they never know where our political moods are going to take them.

YES, I VOTED FOR TRUMP! Go ahead and unfollow, unfriend or whatever. That’s fine. Do I agree with everything he’s done, no, I never agree with republicans 100%. My first election ever I voted for John Kerry. I never vote straight ticket, I always vote on merit. I couldn’t vote for Clinton so there you have it.

But just because I don’t like President Trump’s twitter wars that doesn’t mean I dont want to still support him. He’s my president. He’s the leader of my country. Of course I support him. You can disagree with him  and still support him. Because if he wins, I win. If his presidency is positive I’ll be ahead, I’ll win too. 

I told my husband today that it’s been 17 years since 9/11. I think a majority of the country has forgotten what it was like waking up to those twin towers on fire. I vividly remember it. My roommate Brittani was in the bathroom blow drying her hair. The TV was on and I woke up just as the second plane ran into the second tower. The smoke was steaming from the building and the news was going crazy.

I picked up the phone and called my friend James. He was asleep and when I got him to answer he told me not to be gulable, that someone was joking with me. But no, there was no joke. It happened. James and I drove home to Friendswood that weekend and on our drive through Houston we saw a Southwest sign that said “Non stop flights to NYC starting 9/11” But that didn’t happen, the airports had all shut down. 

My dad’s coworker was supposed to be in one of the buildings that crashed, near the floor of the sites. His child had gotten sick and he had missed his flight. I went to college with a guy from Boston who lost friends in the attack. Days and days of coverage lasted with the dust and debris, the image of people jumping out of buildings just to try and live. 

Death, destruction, hatred. 9/11 was real, it was horrible, and it could happen again. 

Do you know how many threats the gov’t has to stop every day, week, month or year to keep this generation of students from waking up to another attack on that scale?

I was an intern at a congressman’s office through my political science program. I went to an FBI Task Force meeting where they talked about the terroist infiltrating a food plant facility that made MRE’s for our troops and poisoning them. Terrorist from the Arab countries sneaking across the border as Hispanics. Legit, real threats that happened in 2003.

What makes you think that’s stopped? You know it hasn’t. It’s only gotten worse because technology has gotten more sophisticated. 

I remember 9/11. I remember my friends of Arab nationalities that weren’t as lucky as me. My skin isn’t dark, my name is Ashley, can’t get more white than that. But I had friends who had darker skin, names that are hard to pronounce. I remember their lives changing forever because now everyone instantly hated them.

I remember the cleaners near my middle school getting vandalized multiple times because someone from Pakistan owned it.

I remember, do you?

The terrorist are real, the threats are real. They happen in England, France and other places in the world. What if we are next?

Yes our country is made up of immigrants- well mostly. We do have the Native American’s who we stole everything from that truly have the rightful claim to our land still to consider. But yes, we are made up of people seeking protection.

My great grandfather Sam came here from Lebanon. He came through Ellis Island. He came at the turn of the century and he worked very hard to save enough money to bring my great grandmother here. They were immigrants. My step family are immigrants. My friends are immigrants. I have nothing against immigration. 

So long as it’s legal.

I hear you, the argument is they are escaping from violence. Okay, so we need to push reform and better vetting process, that’s fine I’m all on board with that. But we don’t need to push for open borders. We need to scrutinize anyone who sets foot on our soil because what if you’re next.

What if you’re on the next flight that gets hijacked and you find out it’s heading for the Pentagon. You have to take down the terrorist. 

What would you do? Would you give your life selflessly to protect our country? Or would you sit there bitching and moaning that we should have had tougher borders for protection.

Everything our country is, everything we work towards, everything we are. You're willing to throw that all away just to get President Trump impeached? I don’t get it, I don’t understand. Why?

If he wins, we win. 

It’s a trickle down affect. 

I read tonight that 1 million jobs have been created this year, 1 million. Why aren’t we celebrating this?

I don’t understand the political climate today, and I don’t think I want to. I know this post went long over board and I mean I can do that, it’s my blog. But I hope at least one or two lines got you to think.

If everyone who is out there crying out that deportation isn’t humanitarian I challenge you. Go out there and bring a homeless man woman or child into your home and leave him or her there for 20 days. See how it feels for you. See if you can help change their life. Take care of your fellow countryman.

Or I challenge you to look at the foster children. 100,000 children with no parents. You want to help go be one of those children’s mom or dad. It was the best decision my Hubby and I ever made. Put your money where your mouth is and help AMERICANS who are without the basic love of a family.

Maybe you can do it, maybe you can’t. Only you will be able to tell.

To sum it up ... remember this ... for you to succeed your country has to succeed. For that to happen, our president has to succeed. 

So the next time you’re out there bashing the President I want you to think about something ... is this bettering me? If the answer is yes ignore me, but if it isn’t ... think about it.

We should want our gov’t to win ... that’s the only way we will win too.

That’s it, I’m done with my ramble ... carry on among you’re lives.