America is in a paradoxical situation where people of other countries have a desire to immigrate here while those already living here desire to escape. I listened to this argument regarding people’s disdain for the way our country functions, and desires to leave, ever since I was a small child and it’s only grown throughout the current administration. There have been times where I, myself, have wondered if it would be simpler to run off to a different country, be it Canada or overseas to someplace in Western Europe, rather than deal with a government that fluctuates as much as it does. However, I stop myself and remember that leaving the US will only cause more harm to the people still living here and will result in no change in how it’s currently operated.
In my mind, the more I think of it, leaving the United States feels like running away from the problem and ignoring it completely rather than making an attempt to fix it. Imagine it this way: say a room of fifty people is always split over where to eat with twenty-six people picking Option A, twenty people with Option B, and four people choosing a third option that works with dietary restrictions. Suppose then that six of the people choosing Option B decide to leave the room completely – making the vote 26:14:4 – and an additional five people choose not to vote at all since they believe their vote won’t make a difference, bringing the vote to twenty-six for Option A, nine for Option B, and four for Option C. This means that a divide that was once separated by six people is now a difference of over seventeen, making it nearly impossible for either of the two options to ever have a chance of being selected.
Let’s bring this back into the world of politics– if a majority of the people that lean towards more liberal ideals decide to leave as a result of unhappiness, it’ll result in the divide between liberal and conservative that can’t be fixed unless there’s some kind of misfortune that falls upon the country itself as seen from the Great Depression – which is something I doubt anyone would like to live through a first, or even second, time. Leaving implies giving up, no longer willing to fight, and that’s not something I can agree with. I might not approve of everything this administration has done, but that doesn’t mean I’ll stop fighting and voting for the people I support. If people leave the country, if they accept defeat and give up, then a better America won’t appear.
Kyrie Jenkins
Staff Reporter
