I didn’t think I’d be writing in protest until I was at least in college, but hard times have a way of making people grow up fast, don’t they? This current administration is the closest thing to a dictatorship the U.S. has seen in a very long time, maybe ever, and they are actively working to keep it that way. Let’s dive into the reasons the United States now has a travel restriction in six European countries (including what once were our closest allies). 

I don’t know a better place to start than the various human rights violations this administration is challenging. LGBTQIA+ rights in the country have been enshrined since 2015, much to the chagrin of conservatives everywhere. It is mainly religious people opposing those rights, although in many sects, you can still find people in support of it. To the people I see saying that homosexuality shouldn’t be allowed because it “opposes God,” may I point you to the First Amendment of the Constitution, which states, “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.” 

Now, I understand how many of them missed this while they were heading at breakneck speeds to bring up the Second Amendment, but this seems pretty cut and dry to me. Who is Congress to decide what is right in the eyes of God? That’s not their job. If you want a reason to oppose gay marriage, feel free to find a hate-based church, but they aren’t allowed to meet inside the Capitol. 

Another issue is that these laws restricting gender affirming care are causing teens harm, because restricting access to things that make them feel comfortable in their bodies is akin to cruel and unusual punishment. “The statutes’ only rational aim is an illegitimate one: an intent to enforce binary understandings of sex and gender on minors’ bodies, jeopardizing their health and well-being in contravention of core constitutional safeguards,” wrote Ido Katari et. al. of the Yale Law Journal. Forty-one percent of LGBTQ teens considered _____ in the past year, according to the Trevor Project. Nearly 1 in 3 teens reported having poor mental health due to anti-LGBTQ legislation. That doesn’t sound very kind to me.

Also, 8.8% of all LGBTQ youth reported having to run away from home due to mistreatment or fear of mistreatment. If your dedication to hate is so great that your own child has to run away and sleep without a home (which 28% of LGBTQ youth reported having to do at some point), then you need to take a deep look in the mirror. 

You brought a child into this world thinking you’d love them unconditionally, and just because they love someone who isn’t the opposite gender, you’re going to force them out of your home? You’re going to create lasting trauma because the person that they are happiest with isn’t your traditional nuclear family ideal? Even peers—if you don’t like someone solely because their identity makes you uncomfortable, that’s a you problem. 

You know what makes me uncomfortable? Heights. But you know what I don’t do? I don’t say no one is allowed to go on any sort of tall thing because it goes against what I like and what I’m used to. I used to be afraid of storms, and instead of getting upset every time I saw one, I researched it. Now I understand them and I’m not afraid anymore. 

This should be the norm now. We have access to the most information anyone has ever had access to in the history of the world, and people are going to ignore it to tear things they don’t like down? That is inane, that is ignorant, and that is being naive by choice to fit your narrative.

 Now that everyone agrees with that and has found no goalposts to move whatsoever, the next portion of human rights that I would like to point out is abortion. I would like to get one thing straight before I get into this section. Zygotes in the womb before a certain point are scientifically not humans. “A zygote, embryo, or fetus are developmental stages of human life and have potential to become a human being or person, but may not yet be a person,”said John Janez Miklavcic and Paul Flaman in a study analyzing whether fetuses are human. 

Do they have the potential to become human? Sure, that’s not the point we’re arguing. The point we’re arguing is that when a woman is assaulted or has an issue with her pregnancy that could cause her to lose her life, that is absolutely an issue that should be fixed. Imagine if a man had an issue that could be cured if he had a vasectomy, but people didn’t want to let him get one because he might have a child later. See how ridiculous that sounds? In fact women have died due to abortion restrictions in states, although it’s hard to tell because governments that have passed the restrictions make it very difficult to measure those types of deaths. 

“They have dismissed committees, slowing down their work. They have weeded out members openly critical of abortion bans and supportive of transparency. Texas has gone as far as to legally prohibit its committee from reviewing deaths that are considered abortion-related,” writes Kavitha Surana et al. in an article published by ProPublica. 

Despite the smoke and mirrors trying to obscure the harm these state governments have done, many cases still have been brought to light, including Nevaeh Crain, an 18-year-old from Texas who died after 20 hours of unbearable pain and three different emergency rooms before finding one that would treat the real cause of her pain: fetal demise. 

“In states with abortion bans, such patients are sometimes bounced between hospitals like ‘hot potatoes,’ with health care providers reluctant to participate in treatment that could attract a prosecutor,” according to the ProPublica article about Crain’s untimely death. All the legislating and politicizing of this specific portion of women’s healthcare has led to hospitals wanting to shirk all responsibility attached to admitting a patient who exhibits signs of anything relating to abortion. 

“Pregnant women have become essentially untouchables,” said Sara Rosenbaum, a health law and policy professor emerita at George Washington University. 

So let’s get this straight: abortion bans have taken the lives of young women that could have been saved, yet the “pro-life” party wants to institute a nationwide one (despite this not being Trump’s official stance, Project 2025, as well as many other prominent Republicans have stated they support it)? Sounds like the proclaimed “party of common sense” could use a little more. 

I suppose the border thing slots into human rights, let’s dig into that. Right now, a father of a young child with special needs is sitting in an El Salvadorian prison, for a crime he did not commit. Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia is a native of El Salvador who was granted protective status by a judge in 2019, preventing his forced return there. He fled El Salvador because of credible threats toward him by gangs. He was first granted that custody after an incident with the Prince George county police department after they believed he was a member of the MS-13 gang and brought him in. After a court case, it was found that Garcia was not affiliated with the gang and was released.

 However, due to an “administrative error,” Garcia was still sent to a prison in El Salvador for his gang affiliation. When J.D. Vance spoke on X (formerly Twitter) about the incident, he said, “My comment is that according to the court document you apparently didn’t read, he was a convicted MS-13 gang member with no legal right to be here.” This statement is verifiably false and has been verified as such. For the Vice President of the United States to spout misinformation as easily as saying “hello,” it is shameful, and it is a dark part of the country’s history. What happened to the politicians of yesteryear who prided themselves on honesty? Vance also said in the post, “My further comment is that it’s gross to get fired up about gang members getting deported while ignoring citizens they victimize.” To that, I say, don’t post ASMR videos of people getting deported on the official White House X account. 

ASMR is a popular video genre involving sounds made close to a microphone to induce a tingly sensation. The White House account posted a video of putting a person in chains, and deporting them, but the style they did it was in a stylized ASMR type of video, such as sounds of handcuffs being dragged across the ground. The level of dehumanization it takes to not only chain someone up and send them thousands of miles away from their life, but to turn it into a stylized video is another level of inhumane. They also used AI to generate a photo of a person of color in handcuffs, sobbing while a military style man glares at her with an American flag in the background. Because demonizing types of people has gone so well to heal the country in the past. 

Now let’s dive into everyone’s favorite daddy’s money failed businessman who pretends to be successful by taking others’ success: Elon Musk. A man who grew his image on being this tech bro who created cool stuff… hasn’t created that stuff. He bought it. Tesla? He started it in ‘04, right? Nope, started in ‘03, bought it ‘04. SpaceX? He had the role of Chief Engineer, but he didn’t work on- let’s see here- rocket engines, propellant tanks, plumbing… the body, couplings, or the electronic systems. So about none of it. Let’s not forget he first got his fortune from his father’s apartheid money. Sounds about white. Circling back to my first section, Elon has a trans daughter, who he claims the “Woke mind virus” infected her. He has deadnamed her repeatedly, and has cut her off since she came out at trans in 2020. Not a good look for Musk. Now, let’s talk

about his “role” in the government (as a non-elected official, illegal immigrant, non-U.S.-born citizen). His job is to head the Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, as he likes to call it. The department is supposed to trim off excess spending and things of that nature. That, I have no problem with, that is a good idea, I think. He’s just gone about it so badly. For instance, he sent out an email to every single government employee asking for a rundown of their work for the week, and if they didn’t answer, he would take it as a sign of resignation. Yeah, let’s hand the guy who was not elected tons of confidential government work because he wants to make things work a little faster. Not to mention, he literally bribed people to vote for a judge he wanted in Wisconsin, which is illegal.

 The judge who beat the conservative judge stated in a victory speech, “As a little girl, I never could have imagined that I’d be taking on the richest man in the world for justice in Wisconsin. And we won.” This victory for Democrats may have been driven by dislike for Musk, with Wisconsin native Mike McLain saying, “I don’t know how a billionaire, almost a trillionaire, can decide what’s going on. You can’t even relate with common people.” Musk has been in some form of controversy since nearly day one, where at a rally celebrating Trump’s inauguration, he did a salute nearly identical to one done in Germany 80 years ago. 

Moving on to DEI. DEI is to conservatives akin to me walking into a bank and getting a job as the manager there because they have to hire me. In fact, it is not. DEI is not hiring people just because they look different than others, it is so that the people that look different have a fair chance. White straight men often get hired to fill jobs that frankly, other people are more qualified for. For instance, the number of female doctors has steadily been rising in the past few years. The number of medical malpractice suits? Going down at almost the same rate. Without some semblance of DEI, Steve from Minnesota who ChatGPT-ed his way through college would get hired first and forget what he’s doing the first time he has to put in an IV. “Unconscious bias can be costly for organizations. It leads to high disengagement and turnover. Active disengagement costs US companies $450 billion to $550 billion per year. This is why we should be doing everything we can to eliminate it from the hiring process. DEI can help us do this. In addition to reducing disengagement and retention and increasing the chances that we’ll hire the right person for the job, eliminating bias and discriminatory practices from the selection process can open up the recruitment process to a wider pool of highly qualified candidates and improve the overall quality of hires. It can also have a positive effect on how potential candidates view the company,” writes Matt Tenney, Author of Inspire Greatness: How to Motivate Employees with a Simple, Repeatable, Scalable Process. But even the name, DEI- Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion. You’re going to look me in the eye and tell me diversity is bad? Inclusion is bad? Inclusion is what makes people feel welcome, feel okay to be themselves. Another criticism I’ve heard about DEI is that it doesn’t affect most people, so why should they care? To that I say… what? It is designed to help minorities, obviously it won’t affect most people. If everyone who a problem didn’t affect put their heads in the sand and tuned out, this country would be in shambles.

You think civil rights were won by solely African-Americans? No, people of all races marched in solidarity. You think gay marriage was won by only LGBTQ people? They were a big part, but there’s an ally flag for a reason. DEI shouldn’t be seen as this thing that steals jobs from people who earn it. Instead, they level the field. I’m reminded of this great cartoon, where a father, an older son, and a younger son are watching a baseball game over a fence. The dad can see over the fence by himself, but the sons need help. There are three crates nearby to stand on. The older son, being taller, only needs one crate. The younger son needs two to see. What DEI does is give the younger son two crates, and the older son one so all three family members can see at the same height. However, what some think it does is give the younger son all three crates and make the father crouch down so he can’t see and also give the son free tickets to the game. Needless to say, that is not what happens. 

“B-b-but the economy!” He’s such a good businessman!” You mean the guy that has bankrupted six companies? Including a casino! Do you know how hard it is to bankrupt a casino? It’s nye impossible. Lo and behold, he gets into office and the Dow Jones drops 8,000 points. Oh wait, but he said that if he lost “the result will be a Kamala economic crash, a 1929-style depression.” Well, he was right about the crash part, just not who caused it. Plus, he is spewing rhetoric about how the economy was awful under Biden, and he has to fix it… the economy was not terrible under Biden. When he left office, the unemployment rate was 4.1%, and the average jobless rate was lower than any president since the 60s. The GDP also grew 3.1%. The country also gained 16.6 million jobs, compared to Trump’s first term where he lost 2.1 million. Trump was the first president since Herbert Hoover (who was president at the start of the Great Depression) to lose jobs. But right, let’s get this guy back into office to save an economy that doesn’t need fixing.