My Daughter (Who is overseas in a Muslim country) And a little Muslim Boy Who Has Been Ravaged By War: Thoughts Regarding Charlottesville (printed with her permission)

From my daughter who is overseas... I am so proud of the writer she is becoming... and what she stands for.

"Some of my many thoughts regarding Charlottesville*

Last month, when I was traveling through Malaysia (a Muslim majority country), I met a restaurant owner with a 7 year old son, and both wanted to practice their English with me. They were so kind; the father kept asking me questions about my travels and told me that he hoped to travel someday too. And the son had just gotten a good grade on an English test and told me that it was his favorite subject, moreso than even his own Malay language classes.

After a while, I needed to leave and asked them if they had any questions for me. I then told them that I was an American and asked the little boy if he had any questions about America, "as long as it's not about Donald Trump," I said to his father, while laughing it off.

The second I mentioned Trump's name, the little boy panicked. He ran to his father's side and started hyperventilating. "Donald Trump wants to kill me!" he said. "Donald Trump wants to kill my country. What did we do?" Even the father had nothing to say as his son cried. Only later did he tell me that they were refugees from Yemen, a country that suffered 70 United States airstrikes in one month, under Trump's command.

I couldn't do anything. I was so shocked that I couldn't do anything but cry with the little boy for the first few minutes. Then I put my hands on the boy's shoulders and said, "I want you to listen to me. There are good people and bad people in every country. There are people who are so miserable that they want to hurt people, and that's what Donald Trump is. But the good people, they won't let anything happen to you. They love you and want you to be safe." The boy seemed unconvinced and I couldn't blame him. I couldn't even convince myself.

Because now, I look back to that little boy and all I can think is, "Was that a lie?" Would the "good people" of my country care about that little boy? He was (1) Muslim, (2) non-white, and (3) poor. Would my neighbors, who are polite, God bless them, but "just don't want to get involved in politics" see someone like him as worth protecting? Where is the line drawn? What if he was Jewish and saw the Neo-Nazis walking up and down our streets?

What's worth protecting now?

My friends, in the wake of Charlottesville, we no longer have the option of remaining neutral in American politics. The whole world is watching us, including the children who are learning what America stands for. On our own soil, Mr. Trump has turned our country into a battleground between Nazism and those who fight against Nazism, by equating the two as comparable evils. And as always, when fighting against pure evil, there cannot be a middle ground.

Our country is having an identity crisis right before our eyes. So now is our time to decide what our country truly stands for. We have to remember who we have to protect.