What I thought was a regular day for me as a 13 year old in 7th grade, was actually a very terrifying day for some individuals and families, but it was also a very terrific day for others. I saw people crying, arguing, and even people contemplating leaving the country they once called home. I also saw people celebrating, they were putting American flags on whatever they could, setting off fireworks, and even throwing parties. This was the day Donald Trump became President, this is also the day I started to realize how divided our country actually is. The two different views on that day can be compared very well to the perspectives we see in Michael Paterniti’s essay “Eating Jack Hooker’s Cow”. We get a very close insight on two competing motel owners and how their goals in life are very similar, but their beliefs are complete polar opposites of each other. We see how an old fashioned man views the world and hates the hard working immigrant who traveled to America with very new and upcoming values in life. On the other hand, Donna, an immigrant, also hates Jack Hooker, an older fashioned man when it comes to his beliefs, because she knows he hates her. I feel that one of the reasons that we see conflicting views and such division nowadays is because the lack of kindness in the world. In Danusha Lameris’s poem “Small Kindnesses” she explains how small acts of kindness are one of the only things holding us together and are one of the things getting us through the day. I truly believe that if we all at least attempted to live through kindness, the division we see specifically in American society, could possibly die down as time goes on.
