Response to America in 2018
By Lukas Göthberg

Greetings to you Davina! I must thank you for giving our class this opportunity to respond to a letter that contains a genuine message. I must say however, your opening sentence was quite powerful. This instantly got my attention due to my love for both politics and debating different opinions. The political climate in America is indeed extremely chaotic, with many clashing sides holding a multitude of opinions, such as the Alt-right and BLM. The second thing in your letter that caught my attention was how you described yourself as a person of color and the issues surrounding that community. In my mind, while people hold different opinions and values, I do not believe that by describing yourself as a certain group simply because of your genes or origin is a good idea. This simply increases the divide already seen in America instead of trying to mend it. An example of this would be that instead of seeing each other as fellow Americans, as people of equal value, you put people in groups before even getting to know them. This also feels contradictory in your next point about how you are a Democrat because you believe in equal value. I do not think that you could achieve equal value if you keep labeling people due to things they cannot control, such as their skin color or their country of origin. Some of the other opinions I do not fully agree with either. I believe in liberty, a freer market, and also the right to bear arms. You saying that Democrats support education also appears bit weird to me. Are you implying that the Conservative party does not, or are you simply saying that they take a different stance on it? I’m also curious about how politics have become a breeding ground for xenophobia, if you could give me a couple of examples. The third thing I’m curious about is how you said you advocate the separation of church and state, implying that they are already connected, which I have never heard off.
I can fully understand why you might feel threatened, but you have to understand that this is a minority of people. For every political view there are always extremists, no matter where you look. While the alt-right has most likely done bad things, I have seen Black Lives Matter protesters beat people to an inch of their lives, and one even got jailed for beating someone with a bike lock. I could spend all day debating about which extremist group is the worst, but the thing to consider here is that they are extremist, not regular citizens.
I can also understand why you could think that the government is trying to tell you what to do with your body; however, you are not forced to listen to them. Just because they cut the funding for something does not mean you cannot do this any longer, it will just be a bit more expensive. Another question here to consider is if the child a woman bears it truly hers. It is a product of both a man and a woman, and even then it has its own life. Is it not equal to claiming you own a person? Just because it grows in you, are you allowed to decide who gets to live and who does not? If left be, would it not become a person capable of thought? Thought these are very philosophical questions, and I understand that all people have different opinions, these are simply mine.
That someone with no educational experience is to be made Secretary of Education is indeed questionable, however from what I have learned of Title IX it has both positive and negative aspects of it, much like everything else. It has forced many schools to use excessive measures that harm students that might have been innocent, in fear of losing their funding. While it might be bad to revoke it without any replacement, they have promised that they will have some ready.  I also do agree with your opinion of how important education is. It helps the mind develop and you gain a lot of skills that might be very useful in life. It is also indeed very important to be able to have an educated opinion, because it is too easy to simply listen to what someone else says and take it for granted and I have seen it happen many times.
Your opinion on social media might indeed be a bit biased, but it is however a problem for some people. It has become their way of life, and the only way they can get validation is by counting how many likes they have on their images. It might also be a problem when you go to hang out in the classical sense, which I am luckily not that affected by. Whenever I spend time with friends it is usually by playing games together or something similar and we are mostly too busy to have time to check our phones, and even then nobody would notice. The problem with structured sentences is also a problem from what I have noticed, and if I do talk to someone that does, I insist on them writing the full sentence.