On Wednesday evening, I attended a talk with the intention to listen to Professor Peter Enns’ opinion and various facts on American governance and specifically the changes occurring with the new president. However, rather than hearing his opinion or the public opinion, the talk was more of a conversation with a select few of the audience (us students) about Trump’s recent policies, specifically on immigration.

I can’t say I’m disappointed in this talk. Regardless, it was beneficial to think about policies; I’m not one to constantly do so. Students gave opinions on how Trump’s policies have been widely disputed and are wrong. Some discussed the judicial system’s play in allowing these policies to be enacted. Others discussed the historical significance of conservative versus liberal presidents and policies. One specific unique conversation was how to integrate pro-Trump students and people into these conversations of current policies to understand all views. This was a very enlightening topic for me personally. However, we didn’t really stick to this topic for long before moving on for closing remarks.

The biggest problem that I wanted resolved going into this Rose Cafe was to understand exactly what the policies are, what various political opinions are, what the public opinion is, and alternatives people have proposed to Trump’s policies. Clarification is huge. I think so many people, especially people in the generation of social media, have the problem of misinformation. Many things may be blown up due to one specific comment on a specific Facebook page. But what was really the back story?

One takeaway that I think was important is that it is very important to be accurately informed from all angles. Understand more. Think more. Don’t form concrete opinions too quickly.