NOCTILUCA November 2017

OPINIONS Appleton, Wisconsin November 2017 Volume XXIII

Issue II Page 3

Trump: A year in review

Noctiluca Editorial Ending gun violence: the solution is cultural reform

By Avery Wageman

the ban, allowing for specific types of travel such as ex- change students coming to the U.S. from the barred countries. Many promises made dur- ing Trump’s campaign have not been honored, such as his pledge to lower taxes and create millions of jobs. There have been no changes made to the tax plan, though the proposal for the time being is in favor of the wealthy. Also, Trump’s assurance to repeal and replace Obamacare has not gotten very far, although steps have been taken towards repealing it. A definite plan for the replacement has not been released to the public, despite his statement, “We have so many unbelievable alterna- tives. Much less expensive, and great healthcare...much lower deductibles.” The build- ing of his infamous wall along the U.S.-Mexico border has also not made much progress either, despite its influence in his campaign. Budget nego- tiations for the wall have been made, but Democrats are not budging on their stance of pro- hibiting funding. In recent months, the trans- gender military ban has been an extremely heated topic. In July, Trump tweeted an an- nouncement that the U.S. mili- tary would no longer allow

transgender people to serve; his reasoning was that the military’s budget “cannot be burdened with the tremendous medical costs.” He backed his statement by saying this decision was supported by generals and military experts. Trump was quickly disproved by many leaders in the mili- tary stating that gender identi- ty did not matter when accept- ing willing service members into the military. Judge Col- leen Kollar-Kotelly, who has recently reviewed the ban, said that Trump’s abrupt announce- ment over Twitter had no real evidence. Kollar-Kotelly blocked the ban, but it is cur- rently pending an appeal. The judge believes transgender service members are “likely to succeed in their claim.” As a result of his unfulfilled campaign promises, disre- spectful statements and ac- tions, and too many days spent at the golf course (about 75, in case you were wondering), he has obtained an incredibly low approval rating, which de- clined from 45% in January to 36%, as of October. We will have to see how the next year goes, but so far, he has not left a positive impression on not just liberals, but a significant number of conservatives as well.

It has been an odd year for the presidency. I support Trump. I feel he will save this country. However, while I am pro-Trump, I am also pro- opinion. I feel this is some- thing I should say with today’s political landscape being so dangerous. I hope you will respect my opinion as we all should for others. Truthfully, Trump has not done much in this first year, but not for lack of trying. He has tried repeatedly to take out Obamacare and has also tried to pass a travel ban. While now the travel ban looks to be coming soon (and is in the pro- cess of being approved), the Affordable Health Care plan still destroys our country’s economy. People are more critical of the man and less of his de- cisions. For example, since Trump entered office, there has been a reported 53% drop in illegal immigration in the month of July. Illegal immi- gration is a big issue in this country, yet people will not talk about this success, as all Two months later, another uproar was provoked by the travel ban set on six countries with Muslim majority popula- tions. The executive order also suspended the nation’s refugee programs and was intended to last several months. The lat- est additions to the ban, made this fall, have added North Korea, Chad, and Venezuela to the list. The updated ban focuses on the citizens’ visas of the banned countries. The new ban is transient and will allow for the review of the re- strictions on these countries if they’re willing “to cooperate” with the U.S. The revisions have only slightly improved By Hunter Marquardt We are now nearing the final days of Donald Trump’s first year as president, and there is much to talk about. In fact, it would be quite the understate- ment to say Trump has had a rocky start to his presidency. Only 24 hours in, thousands of people–the majority being women–marched around the globe in protest. The continual disregard of Trump’s demean- ing comments and actions to- wards women and minorities sparked the outrage of almost 3 million people worldwide. The protests included the top- ics of reproductive, LGBTQ, human, and civil rights.

When facing ideological controversy, people have a tendency to rely heavily on the use of abstract concepts to support their arguments. They speak of unalienable rights, liberty, democracy… The problem is, such forms of rhetoric are only effective when those nouns have mutu- ally agreed upon definitions, a feat that has been difficult to achieve given the recent po- litical climate. Additionally, when using such formalized terms, people find it easy to emotionally distance themselves from the problem. There is something to be said about not letting emotion cloud judgement, yes, but there is a proper time and place for it to come into play. When innocent children’s lives are being stolen from them, it is right to be angry. It is right to be devastated, and full of grief, and appalled. There comes a time when it is no longer appropriate to remain closed off from those emotions. There comes a time to stop compartmentalizing, and view the whole picture. And right now, it’s an ugly picture. Again and again, the citi- zens of the United States have watched a conservative legis- lature vote in favor of a con- stitutional amendment over their lives. At what point is enough, enough? How many people have to die before significant measures are taken to prevent this from happening again? Some are quick to point out that guns do not pull their own triggers, nor do they point themselves. But in mak- ing such an argument, they miss the target entirely. These weapons are readily accessi- ble, to the point where a per- son would be harder pressed to buy one on the black mar- ket than they would to buy one from Walmart.

The solution lies in stricter gun control laws – laws that have been found successful in preventing gun related vio- lence in several other coun- tries. But also, I acknowledge, part of the solution does not involve legislation at all. It requires cultural reform, start- ing with raising empathetic children and deconstructing toxic masculinity. Teach men not to be ashamed to voice their emotions. Teach them that they are allowed to feel more than just anger; that they are a part of a greater whole, rather than apart from it. Stop normalizing mass shootings. Just because they happen frequently does NOT mean they should be viewed as a regular, desensitized oc- currence. We need to re-sen- sitize ourselves to horrors of gun violence. We need to edu- cate people about the value of human life and how to be kind. How to prevent bully- ing, and how to cope with being bullied. And we need to keep reminding them, lest they forget. Acceptance is crucial for prevention. Try to understand other people; a person’s right to live is not determined by their similarity to you or any- one else. As long as they are not hurting themselves or anyone else, they should be allowed to exist in peace. We are so tired of hear- ing people explain away this kind of domestic terrorism as “unpreventable.” Our student body is tired of practicing ALICE drills, wondering if our school is next... if we are safe to go to church, or out to the movies. The time for change has come, and we are tired of waiting.

A year after Trump

Trump speaking at the 2013 Political Action Conference. Photo taken by Gage Skidmore via Creative Commons.

they care to talk about is his last tweet. Additionally, “the wall” is eminent, as Homeland Security recently reported that the design of the wall has been finalized. I do not sup- port Trump’s every decision–I don’t expect anyone to agree with everyone all the time–but why hate everything he does without knowing the facts? While bills and such have not been passed under Trump’s presidency, like some presi- dents have gotten out in their first year, he has still managed to raised the stock market. The average growth rate is around 2% a year and, in just a quar- ter under Trump, it has gone up 1.4% and has an estimated 3% for the year. So once again,

you can hate Trump as a per- son, but look at his policies before judging him as a presi- dent. In the end, I can’t say much for the President’s first year. It has not been a great year for him, but he has done a few things. I believe this first year would have gone even better if everything he tried to do was not blocked, sometimes even by his own party. So I feel while this year will not be put down in history for its success, the next three will hopefully go better, and the Republican party will have more success. I will leave you with this final point: you can hate him as a person, but find the facts be- fore hating him as a president.