(Original print date Feb 2017)

This week’s opinion had been completed two days prior to me forwarding it to the editor for consideration in the News-Banner. Oddly enough, when I logged onto the internet with the intent of emailing the column, there were a number of posts featured about people who’d been caught up in the wake of an executive order signed by, then President, Donald Trump Friday evening issuing a ban on people traveling to the United States from seven majority Muslim countries. Well, I couldn’t in good conscious keep from speaking out about the severity of his actions as it jeopardized the safety and lives of countless Americans throughout various parts of the world.

The foreseeable problem with Mr. Trump’s action lay simply in the fact that he didn’t take into consideration the potential consequences to the slew of Americans who happened to be working, traveling or visiting the countries specifically identified in his executive order. One big issue with the ban which was intended to prevent individuals who represent a viable threat to the United States from entering the country was the fact that the seven countries listed which included: Syria, Iraq, Iran, Libya, Sudan, Yemen, and Somalia hadn’t fostered any terrorist activities for more than fifty years that resulted in the loss of American lives.

On the other hand, the countries where documented terrorist activity had claimed the lives of numerous U.S. citizens up to that point totaling 162 in Egypt, 314 in United Arab Emirates and 2,369 in Saudi Arabia did not appear on the list of those areas that were banned. Could it be that these countries were locations where Trump, coincidentally, had properties or other business interests?

Prior to his inauguration, Trump informed the people that, in order to avert conflicts of interest whereas any business dealings were concerned, the operation of said enterprises would be turned over to his two elder sons. Those two sons, by the way, with whom he spoke daily and who didn’t make a move without consulting their boss/dad on every breath they took…seriously? No different than when Trump met with foreign diplomats on several occasions prior to inauguration and had his daughter, Ivanka, present during the meetings. Were we really suppose to accept the word of someone who lives in his own alternate universe and makes it typical practice to embellish the truth until it means something altogether different?

Donald Trump campaigned on a platform of “Make America Great Again” by his claim of putting Americans first. But the executive order was signed late on a Friday evening without consulting or even timely warning those government agencies that would have been directly affected by such an action. No considerations were given to the fact people of this country could have been, on any given day, working in countries where they would be subject to capture, torture and/or murder in retaliation to such an administrative faux pa.

There were former representatives from Iraq who’d had to seek asylum in this country as the result of their having assisted the United States in such capacities as interpreters and completed other inactive military assignments that, essentially, had no home to which they could go. This country was founded by emigrants; the US is a virtual melting pot of different races, cultures, and nationalities which is the vital resource from which our nation consistently draws.

Trump purports his misaligned effort was in consideration of putting Christians first but everything about the premise of the executive order spoke against the very principles of the Christian faith. Jesus never restricted, refused, or turned anyone away as His message continues to be one of inclusion; not exclusion. It truly ties my underwear in a serious knot when people hide behind the cloak of Christianity in pursuit of their own illegitimate ends and can’t otherwise identify a purpose as being located anywhere between Genesis and Revelation.

Like many, I held out hope for a better country but it became seemingly more unlikely that Donald Trump had real plans to make America great again as his goal had always been to magnify the Trump brand. It’s pathetic that people of this country have always been encouraged to obtain an education, undergo the process of gaining experience to qualify for a good career when he was positioned in the highest government office without a lick of political experience; just the money to campaign. It was truly my hope that Trump would have proved able to turn the country around but all I saw was more of what had been Donald J. Trump from the beginning. In the infamous words of the late Maya Angelou, “When someone shows you who they are, believe them the first time.” The only thing Trump accomplished was to prove the gullibility of the Americans who’d voted him into office. I could be wrong but it’s just something to consider.