Student offers thoughts on recent government shutdown

Donny Bryant, Staff Writer

For approximately 35 days, President Donald Trump shut down the government over a financial battle for border security.

Around 800,000 federal employees all over the United States of America were forced to go to work without pay for the duration of the shutdown.

Keep in mind, some of these employees live paycheck to paycheck to raise money for their families, and to put food on the table.

For almost four and a half weeks, federal employees repeatedly received checks of zero dollars.

Lives were changed and altered, tempers flared, and catastrophe seemed to be upon America.

This latest government shutdown put America in a vulnerable state.

Most of us who don’t have government jobs were sitting on the sidelines, conversing about different aspects surrounding President Trump and his administration.

Both Democrats and Republicans blamed President Trump for the shutdown, calling it pointless.

President Trump is also losing favor with his core constituents because of this blunder.

I do give Trump some credit in that he is persistent and stubborn, which can be good qualities when you are fighting for something in which you believe.

But what he and others forget when talking about this shutdown is that there are two sides to every story.

On one side, they will say President Trump is holding the country hostage and abusing his power.

The other side states that Trump is only trying to face down a massive issue that other presidents haven’t gone the extra mile for.

Some of you might not have family members that were impacted by the shutdown, but I have multiple members of my family who have been affected by this recent turn of events.

I saw the ways in which their lives were impacted by this shutdown firsthand.

With the shutdown now being temporarily over, state workers started receiving pay once again in late January.

But I feel that people missed the bigger picture that emerged during this conflict.

A metaphorical war between the two parties regarding border security has risen.

I believe that another shutdown is coming.

President Trump has stated in multiple interviews, even after the partial shutdown ended, that there could be another government shutdown.

As we have seen, any negotiations can be complicated and uneasy if Trump is at the bargaining table.

If he does not feel like something is going his way, then he will continue his stubbornness until he reaches what he feels is a satisfying conclusion to the situation.

This is largely why I think there is another government shutdown on the horizon.

To put it frankly, let’s call this upcoming event Shutdown 2.0.

Before 2.0 arrives, keep in mind that President Trump stated in his first meeting with Chuck Schumer and Nancy Pelosi when this mess started, was that he would take the mantle and responsibility for the government shutdown.

Once the shutdown had officially started, he repeatedly avoided any responsibility for the mess it put the United States of America in.

Instead, he continually blamed the Democrats, who tried repeatedly to resolve the problem.

One thing that should stand out in this dilemma is that Nancy Pelosi is definitely one tough customer.

She has stood her ground and made her mark assuring the president that she is not a pushover.

When this partial shutdown ended, people questioned what exactly the point of all this chaos actually was.

Let me say first and foremost, I am not blaming the whole government shutdown on the Republicans, nor am I blaming the Democrats.

Let it also be said that the president abruptly rejected a deal on Dec. 19 that would have temporarily averted the shutdown, giving bargainers time to seek a deal for better border security.

I am totally with the Republican party in that there does need to be a better system of border security.

However, a wall is extremely useless.

Our border security system is broken and needs to be a top priority to fix it, but a wall is not the way to do it.

Immigrants need to come into this country legally and need to be treated as dreamers instead of “illegal aliens.”

America, in my opinion, is by far the greatest country that this planet has to offer.

Individuals from outside the country realize this.

They want to experience the opportunities that those who were born in this country enjoy.

The president doesn’t keep in mind that you can never choose who you are, where you come from or where it was that you were born.

We as Americans, both Democrats and Republicans, must understand that nothing is so black and white.

But let the record show that even with the government reopening back up, the people’s faith in the government is damaged.