By Cameron Pierre-Pierre
Hello, my name is Cameron Pierre-Pierre. For the next several months, I will be writing about the United States presidential election. It has been a fascinating contest up to now, to say the least. I can’t remember any point in my life being more excited about an election. Maybe it is because I was too young before to really care. Maybe it is the fact that I have found a candidate who I feel really speaks for me. There are many maybe’s I could ponder, but I think there is one reason in particular for my enthusiasm. For the first time in my short life, I am afraid for the future.
Now part of that fear stems from my only being in my early twenties. Every person in his or her early twenties enters in to an uncertain future, that’s just the way life is. My fear stems from watching what this campaign has become, compared to the one’s I was less interested in. The only reason I am able to write this column is because my father, Garry Pierre-Pierre, immigrated to the United States from Haiti as a child. He was able to work hard, and create a successful career for himself. So what does my father have to with my fear of this campaign? It all lies in two simple statements that have been repeated for months now: “Build A Wall” and “Make America Great Again.”
What I have seen in this election that I had never seen before is an individual who has managed to tap into the latent hatred, racism, misogyny and xenophobia that exists in our society. What I fear is that hard working people, like my father, looking for a better life will be shunned from the land of opportunity because of the ramblings of a madman and his supporters. What I fear is that there will be no place for me in this new “Great America” so many people seem to revel in the idea of.
Now I am not certain that this individual, who will remain unnamed, will even win the election. He is unqualified to lead this nation, he has no discernable policy besides blame everyone but ourselves, and enough people in his own party are disgusted by him that he could lose the election. However, the fact alone that a man like that is a current frontrunner for the nomination makes my skin crawl. It is this fear that is motivating me to take more of an interest in this campaign. The bright side of my fear, is that I can channel it into a vote, and use my voice as a citizen of the United States to choose a better candidate, someone who truly cares about the people of this country and will lead us into a prosperous future.