Iman Mohammed
My thoughts on the National Emergency declared by Trump is all over the place. I understand it as a power move by the president to enforce an agenda that not many people believe in and everyone knows that but I also know that our fight to restore democracy, our fight to make sure that the minority voices are heard should not be stopped by a national emergency. Most of the work is done by the people on the ground. And we know that it is a hierarchy and we know that power is usually practiced top to bottom but that doesn’t mean our work is done changing it from the bottom up. So I am not a fan of the national emergency.
Stanley Winters
You know I don’t really follow to much on Donald Trump ever since he started running for president just because of the fact how much fear was put out by the media about him. He was some bad guy, I said hey I gotta do what I gotta do as a Black man regardless of what he is doing. I feel like Harriett Tubman, I feel like Sojourner Truth, they did what they did regardless of what the president was doing. So that’s the response I took. So, now that he has declared a national emergency other people come up to me to tell me what’s going on, Im like I didn’t even know about that, Im just out here hustling, getting mine and I encourage other Black men and Black women to do the same thing.
Sharon Williams
I think that Trump is abusing the power that he has as being the president of the United States by declaring an emergency for this ridiculous wall that he wants to build in the El Paso, Texas border area. I believe that the reason why he is so anxious to get this done and taking money from areas he shouldn’t be taking money from is probably because he’s going to make money off the contractors who would be contracted to build that wall. At the same time you have to think about the fact that he’ll be taking people’s property and that in itself is unforgiveable. He is abusing his power, he is crazy.
Jasmine
I don’t think it’s a great idea because how can you allow someone to build a wall on a border and pretty much entrap them kind of similar to a concentration camp allowing people to stay colonized in one area, not able to move? There are benefits in the U.S. not only in Mexico and we are suppose to help each other not bring each other down so what is a wall really going to benefit?
Natalie Metcalf
I think it is a power grab and I think that Donald Trump is misusing his executive authority to do this. I do believe that we have national emergencies like homelessness, the Flint water crisis, mass incarceration. I think this wall is a monument that he wants to erect as a physical monument of his presidency and if he builds a wall how am I going to get out if I need get away from these folks because walls keep people out, but they also keep people in?
Liatris Reebey
I think its unnecessary and kind of not something we should be doing because he said it himself after he declared it that he didn’t need to declare it and that’s to say that it’s not even a national security issue and so it is completely unfounded and he’s obviously using the government for his own personal gain and not acting as a leader should act and more than anything he is tearing this country apart instead of bringing it together and that is not what a president should be doing.
Photos/Aaron Allen
