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Weathering Trump’s storm

Student columnist says remaining united and hopeful is the key

Student Life | Student View

By Brittany Taylor

It’s a scary time in the world.

I hate to bring this topic up again, but it feels wrong not to acknowledge the impact President Donald Trump’s executive order has had.

Disheartening and frightening

Recently, President Trump put an executive order in place suspending refugees from entering America for 90 days. When news of this order broke, it was incredibly disheartening and frightening for many.

Not only was this ban devastating to those seeking refuge from issues within their countries, the order was also racist as it appeared to focus mainly on preventing those from seven predominantly Muslim countries from entering the United States.

Thankfully, many people are not on the same page as President Trump and are strongly opposed to the ban.

Immediately, lawyers, judges, universities, students and numerous companies collaborated to protect those impacted and affected by the order.

Twitter attack

After a frightening, troubling and downright upsetting few days passed by, some good news finally arrived.

A judge issued a temporary nationwide order blocking President Trump’s travel ban. Although this recent breakthrough came as positive news to many, President Trump however, was not pleased.

He immediately made it clear just how displeased he was with this news by taking the appropriate “presidential” course of action and used Twitter to attack and belittle this judge.

Now, President Trump is taking his battle from social media to the courts in order to attempt to get his travel ban reinstated. Luckily, he hasn’t had much luck with reinstating the ban so far.

It is now up to the American courts to decide what will happen next.

#WeAccept

Although a lot of this information is extremely troubling to hear, it proves how crucial it is, now more than ever, that we remain united and support one another.

Many people have been taking action to ensure that these practices are implemented and we remain unified.

During the recent Super Bowl event, various commercials aired took a very different approach than in previous years. Typically, the commercials have a humorous tone and use the opportunity to make raunchy or crude jokes and to entertain audiences in ways.

“AirBnB also provided free accommodation to refugees after the news broke about President Trump’s ban.”

This year, many commercials opted for a more serious tone and featured messages about acceptance and equality.

One that particularly stood out to me was the Airbnb commercial that sparked the hash tag #WeAccept. Prior to the Super Bowl, AirBnB also provided free accommodation to refugees after the news broke about President Trump’s ban.

On a more local level, events have been taking place in St. John’s to show love and support for the local Muslim community.

A recent Facebook-organized event took place in St. John’s on Feb. 3 titled Human Shield: Protect our Mosques and saw the support of more than 600 people.

Hope for the future

It is important to keep in mind that although we have certainly seen better times, there is still hope.

There is still hope that this order will be permanently overruled as it continues to be battled in the American courts.

“It has triggered a sense of community that is being exhibited globally.”

There is still hope for humanity, as the travel ban has brought people much closer together around the world.

It has triggered a sense of community that is being exhibited globally.

“You are not alone”

It is also important to remember that if you are being impacted by the travel ban, you are not alone. Memorial University recently came out with a statement illustrating local campus support.

If we stick together and remain hopeful, I am optimistic that we can and will get through this.


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