Outrage

What the heck has happened to the first amendment? What has happened to freedom of religion? When did people like Donald Trump become the voice of our beloved nation? You'll have to watch this video for yourself, because it is hard to believe that we have become such an exclusionary and judgmental country. Is it because we are afraid? Does our terrible behavior come from ignorance?

Hopefully you weren't too lazy to watch the video, but if you were, here's the main idea. Rose Hamid, a 56 year old American-Muslim flight attendant, was peacefully attending a Donald Trump rally in South Carolina with a t-shirt that said, "Salam. I come in peace." She described the few people around her as open and amiable despite the fact she was wearing a hijab (traditional Muslim scarf over the head) to the rally. However, things took a turn for the worse when Donald Trump started to rant about Muslims. The crowd adopted a mob-type mentality and started shouting hateful things at her. Security then came and escorted her out to calm down the crowd as Trump said, "We have a problem. And I'm going to fix it." Since when did peacefully sitting at a rally become a problem?

Image courtesy of WND

After watching the video, ask yourself this question. What makes that woman different than you and I? Nothing, absolutely nothing, except for the fact that she chooses to wear a hijab. Does that make her a bad person? Does that make her a terrorist? I googled the number of Muslims in the world today and I was surprised. Take a wild guess at how many Muslims live in the world. 1.6 billion. That is more than one seventh of the world's population. Of that 1.6 billion, how many aspire to radical Islam and spread terror throughout the world? Should we be treating all Muslims as if they are terrorists? Should we be listening to the propaganda of hate mongering, right-wing politicians?

I, for one, choose to believe that we are better and bigger than that. I choose to believe that we are a nation built on immigrants, a nation that takes pride in being a melting pot, and a nation that opens its arms to diversity and compassion.

It is up to those of us who insist on upholding the foundation set by our founding fathers to stand up, speak out, and put an end to this non-American fear based nonsense. How do we do that? By educating ourselves on the facts, and making the correct decision at the voting booth.