Mr. President, you should rethink that.

After reviewing several different opinion columns I came across Danielle Allen’s “President Trump says he wants to fix our divisions, but he may gut an institution that does exactly that,” in The Dallas Morning News. Danielle Allen speaks out about the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH), an organization that is dedicated to helping Americans build a shared culture, possibly losing funding with Trump’s proposed budget cuts. She expresses her support of NEH and states that if Trump wants to help fix the divisions in our country, he should rethink his decision to cut the budget for this organization.

NEH was founded in 1965, and it is one of the largest founders of humanities programs in the United States. It has consistently funded digitization of papers of our founding era and leading statesmen and women, as well as many other important historical documents. The NEH also aids veterans through an initiative called “Standing Together. This fund assists veterans in every state in different ways, and has also supported veterans as they go to college. Allen states: Perhaps we are so divided…precisely because we have so profoundly reduced our investment in connective tissue such as the NEH.

I was aware that there were proposed budget to cuts that would affect the Arts, but I had no idea that it would affect an organization like the NEH. To be honest, I was unaware that this organization even existed, but after reading this article I did some research on this organization, and I agree that it is important to bring a shared culture to all Americans. We are currently experiencing a great divide in our country and we need organizations like the NEH. Not only are they helping document history, but they are helping people today to succeed for the future.  I often hear that Americans do not have their own culture, but this organization is trying to document our culture and bring it together.  We are melting pot of people and cultures, and that is what makes our country unique. The decision to rid of the budget for the arts will affect the lives of every American.

La Migra!

On Friday, February 10, 2017, The Washington Post published an article called, "Federal agents conduct sweeping immigration enforcement raids in at least 6 states.” This article describes raids and checkpoints held by the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in California, Texas, North Carolina, New York, and Kansas. It states that immigration activists have “documented ICE raids of unusual intensity in the last 48 hours” in these 6 states. The article brings reason to believe that these actions could “be retaliation for those cities’ so-called ‘sanctuary city’ policies.” 

The raids began Thursday night after the decision by the Ninth Circuit Appeals Court decided to keep a hold of Trump's travel and immigration ban. Ice is not only targeting criminals, but is taking anyone that they encounter that is not able to prove citizenship. It was stated that people are being stopped at random and asked to provide proof of citizenship. Protesters are making a stand, and non-profit agencies are doing what they can to provide legal representation to those affected.

I had originally picked an article from the BBC to write about, but as I scrolled through social media I was made aware of these raids happening in my mother’s neighborhood. I initially dismissed the claims; I know how people can exaggerate, and then I started to hear about it more and more. When I read this article, I was overwhelmed with emotions. I started to worry about my friends that are immigrants and their families. I know that they have citizenship, but what if they are caught without proof. I can't imagine living in fear of being separated from my family, or being taken from my home and deported to a country I never knew. Many of these people have lived long lives here, and I know that there are laws that they should follow to gain citizenship. It is also costly to gain citizenship, and many of these people can only afford to support their most urgent needs.