By Jackson Ponder, The Eagle Eye Editor in Chief
It’s amazing. The world right now. Amazing meaning, “cause great surprise or wonder.”
I wonder if people are still amazed as much as I am every day when they see a news story about protests turning violent or the president saying something that may not be correct. The fact that this Presidential election is one that is happening during a worldwide pandemic makes it especially interesting.
These days people are so divided it seems impossible to be able to talk to others about the current political issues the world is facing.
On September 14th I was allowed to ‘skip’ school to go and watch Air Force One carrying President Trump land in at the former McClellan Air Force Base here in Sacramento. If you are unfamiliar with the name Air Force One it is the presidential Boeing passenger jet. There are two, one being a 747 another being a 737.
On that Monday, flew into Sacramento to meet with Governor Gavin Newsom to talk about the recent wildfires. I wanted to go to the airfield just for the slightest glimpse I may see of the president or Air Force One.
I ended up getting both.
At first, I wasn’t keen on the idea of going to watch the plane land. My friend had to convince me by saying, “this presidency is going down in history.” That’s what got my attention. It’s a completely true statement though. If you think about it.
Throughout the entirety of the day, I captured pictures of both the plane and the president. I managed to capture over 500 photos and I was proud of a few certain photos I took. One included a picture of President Trump boarding Air Force One minutes before takeoff as well as a few other photos that involved fire personnel and a photo of a police officer in front of the iconic baby blue and white airliner.
These pictures were posted on my personal Instagram page. The photos of the President got people’s attention in the comments section, and many had different opinions to say the least. Even hours after the photos were posted people still were commenting.
A few of these comments called on me to share my thoughts.
I simply responded by saying, “I do not feel inclined to share my political thoughts on social media.” Most of the other comments were people touting their beliefs by trying to disprove others. You see most of this online these days. People hiding behind a screen so there is no backlash that can lead back to you. The internet is a safespace to spread hate
Think about it this way: if someone came up to you and told you or yelled at you that everything you believed in was wrong because it doesn’t align with what they believed. That was exactly the situation in the comments section.
People are raised to believe in different things.
This is completely normal. Our country was founded on discussions. Not online and not just blaming but instead constructive conversations that ended in solutions agreed on by many. In these times though it seems that if you don’t align with one side or the other, you are wrong. And if you align with the wrong side you’re wrong. However you believe, you are just seen as wrong by so many people on the other side. Today’s climate is made up of constant blaming of others instead of finding real solutions to benefit everyone.
Look at the past few presidential debates. Trump constantly blamed Biden for not doing anything for the past 47 years. Where Biden also blames Trump for the loss of life during the pandemic.
That’s one of the largest problems these days. We want to be inclusive. People want to be educated. People who want to be inclusive still won’t accept the other side sometimes and the people who want to be educated sometimes only look at one source. It doesn’t matter what your opinions are or which way you lean on the political spectrum.
Say someone is more conservative-leaning, and someone more liberal or someone with different beliefs tries to explain why your beliefs are wrong, you are going to resent what they stand for even more. This scenario can be vice versa and is often what is seen in everyday life.
What would be nice is to be able to have a constructive conversation sometimes without the blaming of others to at some point find a solution.
The Eagle Eye Newspaper 