When I was 19, I jetted off to Italy with a scary black pocketbook. It was my first time leaving the U.S., and I didn’t know what to expect.
Who would need to see my pocketbook — err, passport?
What questions would they ask?
Would they speak to me in English, or would I have to download Google translate?
Like most Americans, I was under-traveled and overwhelmed.
I now live in Europe, but I cringe whenever U.S. politicians or news anchors tell Americans to “Leave the country” if they disagree with a policy or position. Even the POTUS himself uses this type of language:
Trump’s casual racism aside, all of this got me thinking…
Do the people who regularly use this phrase know how hard it is to immigrate to another country?
Obviously not. If they did, they wouldn’t casually tell their adversaries to move to Canada or Sweden, as if these countries are eager to pull out the red carpet for everyday Americans.
I’ve already written about how hard it is to move to Europe from the U.S., but moving anywhere in the world has its hurdles. Despite mass communication and the technological advances of the 21st century, immigration is still an expensive, tedious, bureaucratic disaster. Most Americans don’t have the time, the money, or the means to go through with it, and they definitely aren’t going to emigrate just because a short-sighted American told them to.
Not only is it impractical to expect everyone who disagrees with you to “leave the country”, but it’s also childish. The phrase implies that there cannot be a compromise or a respectful debate about anything. If you disagree with the POTUS or the current administration, you must either stay silent or get lost.
That doesn’t sound very democratic to me.
Every American reserves the right to vote and to make real change in their community and country. When you tell an American to leave the U.S. because you disagree with their opinion, you’re telling them that their voice (and vote) is less valuable than yours.
The American political landscape is already a mess. The country doesn’t need more hostility— it needs unity.
Americans can start by respecting every U.S. citizen’s right to live and vote in America.
