Happy beginning of
February! I’m busy drafting my prospectus and diving into a fresh, new
semester! I’m also checking out Valentine’s Day nail art on Pinterest when I
need to take a break from research and/or the news.
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| Via Instagram |
Speaking of the news, my original plans for this blog were to focus on my two main passions, my research and Arabic stuff, which seemed inherently apolitical before the elections. But, as I noted in a previous blog post on my reaction to the election, it’s been really hard to separate the political from the personal.
Attending marches have
felt healing in the wake of the inauguration and the ban. Calling my congressmen
also provides a kind of cathartic relief in knowing that I’m doing my civic
duty. Donating what I can to the non-profits that I support also gives
me hope that we as a nation can focus on nurturing our communities to weather
this storm.
At the same time,
despite all this positive energy, I think it’s fine to admit that we’re all a
little scared. Okay, let’s be honest, we’re all really scared!
One way in which I’m
scared is the fact that this ban on certain muslim-majority countries hasn’t
vanished through our legal system yet. I’m hoping that, with our collective
support, this unruly executive order will disappear in due course. But, if it
doesn’t, it will have very dire consequences on a lot of American families,
many of whom are immigrants who are just trying to do what hundreds of thousands
of immigrants have tried to do before them.
Some of those
immigrants happen to be S’s family. They’re from Syria. If this ban remains, we
have to figure out where they can relocate to outside of the United States.
After having to leave Syria in the middle of a civil war, the thought of
finding a new home is traumatizing. We hope that it won’t come to that, but we
just don’t know. There is a lot of confusion about what the ban means and how
far it can go, especially since it seems to be changing all the time and different judges are temporarily blocking the ban. Needless to say, however tiring,
we’re following the news very carefully.
Besides the very
personal way in which this impacts my life, I worry about what this ban means
for the values of the United States. The constitution was designed to
support a group of people with different backgrounds. It’s true that American
history has repeatedly betrayed many groups within its nation, and I hope that
this ban does not become a piece of that long list of injustice. If the ban
remains, I don’t think that this country’s government can claim any pretense of
equal opportunity.
So what’s your take on
the ban? Feel free to drop me a line via this post’s comment section, e-mail,
or your preferred social media channel. Also, please remember to practice self-care
(my favorite new buzz word) because we need to prepare for a very long four
years!
Update on 02/05/17: In a very dramatic couple of days, the a judge in Seattle repealed the ban, and when the administration appealed the decision, the court of appeals denied the request. It certainly seems like there's hope that the ban will soon be a very brief moment in history, but I think it's important to stay alert and pay attention to all the ways in which people coming from the affected countries could still face discrimination.
Update on 02/05/17: In a very dramatic couple of days, the a judge in Seattle repealed the ban, and when the administration appealed the decision, the court of appeals denied the request. It certainly seems like there's hope that the ban will soon be a very brief moment in history, but I think it's important to stay alert and pay attention to all the ways in which people coming from the affected countries could still face discrimination.