By Christopher Zullig
As I was walking to class on the morning after the 2016 presidential election, I was relaxed — as relaxed as I could be in the wake of such an exciting race that I had stayed up until 3 a.m. to watch, only to feel disheartened by its results. To those who are Donald Trump supporters: Don’t write me off just yet. While Trump is our president-elect and we must accept that, I would like to explain why I believe this is a step in the wrong direction.
While I was walking to class, I was thinking about why I disagreed with so many of my peers about who should be the next commander-in-chief.
When I was in Lot 12 on my walk, I experienced something astrophysicists call the “cosmic perspective.” I stopped looking in front of me and rose upward. I saw myself from 10 stories above and I saw another student walking nearby me in the opposite direction. It was at that moment I realized, as I rose higher and higher and saw more and more students walking to and from class, I was no more of a significant piece of the world than any other person on campus.
As I rose upward, however, I could see some large pieces of the complicated contraption that is humanity. These pieces were the great leaders of the world. They were entrepreneurs, esteemed professors and politicians. Finally I was high enough off the ground where I could see the planet floating on its own in space. “Where are its people going? It looks so isolated,” I thought.
Earth has been explored. It is time to search for new frontiers. However, before we can explore, we must unite as citizens of the world — not just citizens of individual areas of land arbitrarily carved out for different groups of people. Electing President Barack Obama was a step in the right direction. His rise to office symbolized putting aside differences for the betterment of humanity. Our final goal as human beings on Earth should be to unite.
I believe Hillary Clinton has the future of humanity in mind rather than merely thinking about the future of America when she makes decisions. She said an ultimate goal of hers would be to have “open borders” between nations. Trump and his supporters heavily criticized this goal and said it was un-American. This is an archaic way of thinking.
Even Trump’s slogan, “Make America Great Again,” is archaic. We shouldn’t be moving backwards and putting up walls between each other. We should be working to unite.
I believe that if Clinton was elected, we would be seeing a far more advanced world much sooner. Since we’ve elected Trump, we will be going in reverse for a little while, but thankfully, it is inevitable that we will come together. Every day, more walls — literal and figurative — are broken down. It’s just a matter of time.
