As all of you probably know, I am a Bruce Springsteen fan. With being a dedicated fan, I take Springsteen's liberal views on topics such as human rights, LGBTQ rights, worker's rights and his political opinion to heart. I'm proud to say my role model is a man who fights for human rights and strives to see America prosper.
The election of the 45th President of the United States has sparked outrage and protests across the country and world. Donald Trump has proven that he can be a bigot, sexist, racist, Islamophobic, xenophobic and homophobic throughout his entire campaign and still win the presidential election.
The day after Trump was inaugurated, Saturday, January 21st, millions of women from all around the world marched to protect their rights, which many fear will be taken away with this new presidency. On that day, a record number of women marched. Over 5 million worldwide and 1 million on Washington, sent a strong and bold message to the new government on it's first day in office. A statement that sums it all up was one that Bruce made on January 22nd, in Perth, Australia:
"They rallied against hate and division and in support of tolerance, inclusion, reproductive rights, civil rights, racial justice, LGBTQ rights, the environment, wage equality, gender equality, healthcare, and immigrant rights. We stand with you. We are the new American resistance"
A president should not have the ability to instill fear and terror to the many immigrants that make the United States what it is. As of Friday, January 27th, Trump has signed a vague and undescriptive executive order banning entry to the U.S. from 7 majority Muslim countries including; Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen for 90 days. This list however, does not include countries in which Trump has business affiliations with such as; Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Turkey and United Arab Emirates. Even though he has "signed off" the Trump business to his two sons, his presence is still dominant. This order also suspended all refugees from coming to the U.S. for 120 days. Trump has compared his ban to Obama's ban in 2011, "My policy is similar to what President Obama did in 2011 when he banned visas for refugees from Iraq for six months." Obama did implement this plan, only because there was a specific threat on Americans. Whereas with Trump's ban, there has been no terrorist attack by any immigrant or refugee from the 7 countries banned. PolitiFact rates Trump's statement as mostly false. This ban on Muslim majority countries shows how selfish our new leader is. These new policies and orders being passed by Trump is literally a radical campaign coming to life.
As Springsteen put in Born To Run - we're on a runaway American dream. If immigrants and refugees can't come to the United States to make a better life for themselves then it's harder to measure the distance between the American reality and American dream. At Springsteen's concert on January 30th in Adelaide, he added his thoughts on the new executive order, "Tonight, we want to add our voices to the thousands of Americans who are protesting at airports around our country the Muslim ban and the detention of foreign nationals and refugees. America is a nation of immigrants, and we find this anti-democratic and fundamentally un-American" Springsteen used this as an introduction to his "immigrant song", American Land. Springsteen has changed the lyrics in that song to add 'Muslims and the Jews', in Land of Hope and Dreams he added, 'this train carries immigrants' and dedicated Trapped to detainees.
A song that I've been listening to a lot recently and especially around the time of the election is, Livin' In The Future. Springsteen himself has said the song is about, "things that shouldn't happen here, happening here." Although the song was released almost 10 years ago and is about George W. Bush's presidency, it can easily relate to the notion of today. "Woke up election day, sky's gunpowder and shades of grey" is a lyric that really describes how November 8th felt for many people, especially seeing the results with a sense of lost hope. Also, "none of this has happened yet" can be interpreted as a lie many people keep telling themselves to not worry so much about the future of democracy.
Within less than 2 weeks of the inauguration, America's image to the rest of the world has essentially been destroyed. So thank you Bruce, for being a voice for so many Americans and sharing your opinion on important political topics.
As Springsteen put in Born To Run - we're on a runaway American dream. If immigrants and refugees can't come to the United States to make a better life for themselves then it's harder to measure the distance between the American reality and American dream. At Springsteen's concert on January 30th in Adelaide, he added his thoughts on the new executive order, "Tonight, we want to add our voices to the thousands of Americans who are protesting at airports around our country the Muslim ban and the detention of foreign nationals and refugees. America is a nation of immigrants, and we find this anti-democratic and fundamentally un-American" Springsteen used this as an introduction to his "immigrant song", American Land. Springsteen has changed the lyrics in that song to add 'Muslims and the Jews', in Land of Hope and Dreams he added, 'this train carries immigrants' and dedicated Trapped to detainees.
A song that I've been listening to a lot recently and especially around the time of the election is, Livin' In The Future. Springsteen himself has said the song is about, "things that shouldn't happen here, happening here." Although the song was released almost 10 years ago and is about George W. Bush's presidency, it can easily relate to the notion of today. "Woke up election day, sky's gunpowder and shades of grey" is a lyric that really describes how November 8th felt for many people, especially seeing the results with a sense of lost hope. Also, "none of this has happened yet" can be interpreted as a lie many people keep telling themselves to not worry so much about the future of democracy.
Within less than 2 weeks of the inauguration, America's image to the rest of the world has essentially been destroyed. So thank you Bruce, for being a voice for so many Americans and sharing your opinion on important political topics.
"Blind faith in your leaders, or in anything, will get you killed"
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