My Thought of the Day

Alright, I’ve been debating even writing this since I first heard of it, but it seems I can’t seem to keep my mouth shut about it. For the past few weeks, we’ve been hearing about illegal immigrant children being taken away, more often than not forcibly, from their parents as they try to cross the border into the United States. Pictures of little ones with red-rimmed eyes, tears scratching their way down their cheeks, videos of children being held in makeshift wire cages like animals, and audio clips of babies crying for their parents have flooded our TVs.

Seriously? This is really even a debate?! These are human beings! Say it with me, now: THESE ARE HUMAN BEINGS!! Homo Sapiens! Just like us Americans! They aren’t coming to this country just to fudge things up! They’re coming here to escape the woes of their homeland, i.e. drug cartel, gangs, even their government! They aren’t cattle! We shouldn’t be treating them like a blight!! Good lord! Where is the compassion?! Where is the decency?! Where is the soul and heart of those who look past this with a blind eye, or worse, a smile on their lips?

How can we allow these people to be subjected to such cruelty and unusual punishment? This goes against everything our country stands for! No one deserves such traumatizing experiences, especially children!

What separates us from them, other than our nationalities? What makes their blood any less red than ours? What makes their tears any less salty than the ones running down our cheeks?

I want you to imagine yourself in their shoes: Instead of them coming into our country, we are flooding theirs. Drug cartels have taken over our government, shooting and killing anyone they please. Imagine the mothers and fathers of our country screaming, reaching out to their children as they are taken away by border patrol. Imagine those children – our children of America – being placed into cages, told to sleep on the floor with thin blankets and tiny pillows. Imagine, for even one second, the feeling of terror, exhaustion, and anguish going through the children’s minds, begging for their mommies and daddies until their voices run hoarse.

Imagine those children being Americans. Do you still turn a blind eye? Do you still smile? No?

Tell me, then, why do you turn a blind eye for someone who isn’t your kind? What separates them from us?

On another note, why is this even happening to begin with? Would Mr. Trump have signed that executive order had there been less negative feedback from the populace? Why did it take this long for him to even do so? Why did he even choose to enforce this policy of his? How is this even strengthening the border?

And so, I ask you as I would ask Mr. Trump if given the chance: if you throw out the nationality part, what separates them from us?

I’ve been seeing this a lot lately: someone somewhere on this Earth has written something on the inter-webs along the lines of “if you want to be a serious writer, then you must start a blog!” or “No one will ever look at you if you don’t have a blog/website.”

And, like a lot of people, I start up a blog/website to start my career. But, as I always seem to do, I start the blog and then forget it. I’ve probably started at least 4-5 different blogs, only to stop writing it, or forget about it entirely. I can even tell you the last time I posted an opinion piece on a website (May 20, 2017).

Sometimes it’s because I’m not sure what to write about. Other times I end up putting the website on a back burner because of…well… Life. I come up with the excuses of ‘I just started a job’ or ‘I’m too tired to write anything of interest’ or some other lame excuse. But the truth of it all is: I’m just not good at keeping blogs.

It’s true! I’m even terrible at keeping a diary or a journal. It’s not that I don’t have any thoughts (I have too many!) it’s just that I often don’t think anyone would be interested in what I have to say. That thought is often coupled with struggling to find a topic to stick with and write about.

I like to write about a lot of things: School, my animals, my thoughts about daily life, politics, the list really could go on for another page or two. And don’t even get me started on creative writing. I love coming up with stories in my head! Short stories, novel-esque stories, I even tell myself a story in my head to lull myself to dreamland. Sometimes it’s hard to try and pinpoint a single topic to base an entire blog on. I try not to dwell on one thing for too long and move on, otherwise there’s the issue the topic could consume me whole like some sort of giant python swallowing its prey. Have you seen some of the stories where one of those snakes have swallowed a man whole, with nothing more than his feet sticking out of the creature’s mouth?! That there is nightmare fuel in its own right!

I marvel at how some people can use their blog as some sort of live diary where others could read it and make comments. Some days I wonder if I could do something like that, just to see how people would react to the thoughts that swim in my head all day every day. But then I’m brought down from that cloud when I think that there couldn’t possibly be anyone interested in what’s going on inside my head.

Plus there’s the fact that I seem to veer off topic and start talking/writing about random things that have taken my attention for however short a period. I can honestly tell you that I have stopped and started this opinion piece more times than I care to count! (Of course, I’m also writing this while waiting for the phone to ring at my day job – but let’s not focus too much on that right now.)

In the end, it all boils down to indecisions, fear of not being appealing to the public, and not actively setting the time aside to write something – anything – down to later edit and post to the inter-webs.  And whether or not I’m ready to deal with any negative responses.

That being said, I think – believe should be the more appropriate word – that in order to achieve our goals, we have to do things that make us uncomfortable and expose our talents to the world around us. It’s what makes the good in our lives all the more worth-while. It is in that experience that we become the person we want to be.

Aldous Huxley once said, “Experience is not what happens to you, it’s what you do with what happens to you.”

We confront experience every day – it isn’t something we can avoid. It’s the same for this blog/website I’ve created. Whether it is good or bad, this is an experience I need to take. And most importantly, it is what lessons I take from this exposure that define who I am.

I hope this helps any of you who are just as indecisive as I have been.