Opinion
Criticizing public officials is fair, but children should be left out of it
January 31, 2017
I, like many other people not just in the United States but around the world, am not the biggest fan of our new president, Donald Trump. I don’t think that it’s necessary to dive into great detail about why I am not a true supporter of him, because my recent concern isn’t about him, it’s about his son.
The Twitter world is something that is not uncommon when thinking or talking about Donald Trump. It’s safe to say that a lot of the communication that he does is through the social networking site. However, the latest gossip surrounding the website doesn’t have to do with Donald, it pertains to the way the site has acted as a platform for people to bully his 10-year old son, Barron.
As I previously mentioned, I unfortunately do not care for our president or anything relating to him. Aside from skimming through random news articles, I have never really taken an interest in his wife Melania or his children. With that being said, in light of the negativity surrounding Barron, I have gained something that I didn’t ever think that I would, and that is sympathy for a member of the Trump family.
The latest story surrounding Barron is one that was published by Minnesota Public Radio, “Suspended 'Saturday Night Live' writer apologizes for tweet about Barron Trump.” This story stood out to me, because the negative comments were made by someone who is in the professional spotlight: a writer for the television show ‘Saturday Night Live.’
Throughout the past few days I have read articles about “regular people” posting tasteless comments about the kid, but I think it’s worse when someone who potentially has a large following does it. I mean, if they are doing it, it might send the message to others that it’s OK for them to do it, too.
Unfortunately, the story doesn’t give details about what she specifically said, but I don’t think the specifics are important. What’s important is that a child is catching flak most likely because of who is father is.
There is one thing about the whole entire situation that I find to be admirable, and that is a tweet that was posted by Hilary Clinton’s daughter, Chelsea.
According to the article on January 22, she tweeted, “Barron Trump deserves the chance every child does – to be a kid. Standing up for every kid also means opposing @POTUS policies that hurt kids.”
While I think that child bullying is incredibly important to address with all situations, I think it’s remarkably big of Chelsea to stand up for a part of a family that defeated her mother in the presidential election. She could’ve sat quietly and ignored the hate that Barron has been receiving, but she didn’t.
In conclusion, this whole situation makes me nauseous, because I can’t fathom why adults would be so negative to a child. I don’t care if Barron’s dad was Hitler, poking fun at a child should be off limits. In regards to Chelsea, everyone can benefit by her actions by realizing that sometimes it’s essential to set aside differences to stand up for what is right.