I would like to start off by saying that I know this is a little outdated. In my International Business class, each week, we usually have some sort of a current events-based paper due. At the beginning of the semester, each student chose one continent or continents to focus on for the remainder of the term. The weekly response papers aren't very long, usually only about 1 page, but I think that the real value behind these assignments is doing the research to find the news article to which you're going to respond. I chose to focus on The Americas, and our last paper was due just after Martin Luther King Jr. Day.
I'm not one to hide my political beliefs, so I'm just going to be straight up and say that I'm exceedingly and intensely opposed to the current administration in The White House. There's been so much jargon coming from Washington D.C. these past two years that it's becoming harder and harder to determine when Trump and everyone else in his cabinet have truly crossed the line. To be completely honest, I would venture to say that in my opinion, the majority of politics in the news right now is considered crossing the line, but if I choose to fight every single sentiment conveyed via Twitter, speeches, etc., I would just be completely exhausted by now. But for this blog post, I'm gonna focus on something that Mike Pence said that was just so far past the line that my jaw dropped when I read about it.
Mike Pence, during his “Face The Nation” speech, used one of MLK’s ideologies to help persuade Congress to end the government shutdown, “One of my favorite quotes from Dr. King was, ‘Now is the time to make the real promises of democracy.’ … He inspired us to change through legislative process to become a more perfect union. That’s exactly what President Trump is calling on the Congress to do.” Unsurprisingly, a great deal of controversy arose following this comment, as comparing the government shutdown over a border wall to a civil rights movement was extremely offensive to some. To voice his concerns, Martin Luther King III, MLK’s son, responded to the Vice President’s comments in the form of a speech at a National Action Network MLK Breakfast. "Martin Luther King Jr. was a bridge builder, not a wall builder. Martin Luther King Jr. would say, 'Love, not hate, will make America great.'"
And PENCE WASN'T JOKING. It's hard to know if he knew that this would be such an explosive and condescending comparison or if he truly thought that it was appropriate to compare a government shutdown because of a WALL (which will objectively not solve any issues) to a civil rights movement that was crucial to the development of our country. I wish I could express, in the least instigative way possible, truly how offensive that comment was. While the government shutdown was no joke (and is possibly still pending after these 3 weeks...) and the impact it's had on citizens of this country and the basic functioning of society has been so severe, it would never EVER cross my mind that this is comparable to a movement that is arguably responsible for people of color not being looked at as second class citizens (in some places)... but we still have a lot farther to go until we can actually be equal and comments like the one made by Mike Pence won't be made.
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