Listen Up, Mr. President
It’s official.
Donald Trump is the 45th President of the United States. While many Republican voters are urging those distressed by the outcome to “move on and accept it already,” a chance to listen and understand the other side is clearly being ignored.
There have been many fears brought up since Donald started his campaign for the 2016 election. The losing side is voicing these fears in a time of political unrest while the winners’ reply is simply to yell, “sore losers!” It could be said that the pot is calling the kettle black if the past two elections have anything to show for displays of “sore losers,” but that would be aiming the discussion in the wrong direction again.
Instead, it is better to focus on the terrified voices from the minority groups being targeted by a rampant celebration of hate speech and crimes, which the rhetoric from our new president has awakened.
Some of the worried voices comes from the Muslim community, which has already experienced a rise in hate crimes since the election. The fear that’s been plaguing a majority of the country has been made real, but not overnight. In fact, it’s been steadily increasing since Donald Trump won the Republican nomination.
Back in March, Qusair Mohamedbhai, a lawyer here in Colorado, wrote an opinion piece for the Denver Post titled Echoes of History in Donald Trump’s Stance on Muslims. In it, Mohamedbhai voiced his fear that a Trump Presidency would bring about a Muslim registry or worse should another terrorist attack happen.
While Mohamedbhai was unavailable for interview, he was kind enough to introduce me to Arash Jahanian, another attorney at Rathod | Mohamedbhai LLC. I asked Jahanian what he believes the next step is for our divided country — specifically when it comes to protecting Muslim people. I asked what a non-Muslim person could do to help protect our Muslim neighbors in this darkening time. Jahanian was glad I “framed the question that way because one of the key things that needs to happen is that everyone has to come together, unite, and unify.”
He was clear that the conversation couldn’t become “just about Muslims, or just about the LGBTQ community, or just about Latinos.” If we as minorities divide ourselves, “We lose sight of the effective way to overcome not only what we’re facing now but what we’ve faced at various stages in our history.”
Some people believed Donald Trump couldn’t become president, that our country couldn’t vote that way. Mohamedbhai was not one of those people and saw what no one else wanted, or tried, to see. Now we have to come together and deal with the consequences. The problem is no one is listening to each other. So I asked Jahanian what advice he would give our new president if he could speak with him one on one. He said that while it may be too soon to speak calmly with Trump, Obama addressed our troops with some wisdom we all can use. He said to remember what this country is about. “It’s not about keeping people out; it’s about creating an inclusive place, where we all live together, and we all move forward.”
