Nearly three weeks have passed since the inauguration of Donald Trump. Regardless of you who voted for, most everyone seems to agree that this election season has been a whirlwind from the start to finish. From “Birdie Sanders” to Jeb Bush’s infamous “please clap” and all the Twitter wars and debate remixes in between, the months leading up to the election, and the inauguration, were (for lack of a better word) wild. And, of course, in this day and age, social media makes it possible for anyone and everyone to post their opinion on anything and everything…including the new First Family.
Barron Trump is the youngest of Trump’s heirs at age 10, and didn’t make very many public appearances during the election and inauguration. But that doesn’t mean that he’s escaped any of the heat that First Families are always under.
Most of the criticism initially stemmed from Melania Trump’s decision to remain at Trump Tower instead of moving to the White until the end of Barron’s school term. Then came memes and tabloid articles about Barron’s yawning and long face during Trump’s RNC speech and the inauguration itself. Youtube user James Hunter even went so far as to “diagnose” Barron with autism.
For a kid who’s mostly tried to stay out of the spotlight and, you know, be a ten-year-old, that’s quite a lot to handle. First Lady Trump has tried to shield him as much as possible, especially when it came to Hunter’s video. Unfortunately, there’s only so much she can do, especially since the Internet seems to have adopted an “anything goes” mentality since the start of the election.
Besides that, most of the trolling and teasing and what have you are based around things that are entirely out of Barron’s control. He probably didn’t have a say about staying in New York. But, come on, no kid wants to leave their friends and move in the middle of the school year, even if it is to the White House. And as far as the yawning goes, I don’t think there’s one of us who can say we didn’t get a little bored during the inauguration or the Conventions. Don’t act like you didn’t check Twitter or get up to make a snack.
Unfortunately, this sort of abuse isn’t exactly new. The Internet makes it possible to say whatever we want, whenever we want, and however we want. It’s easy to become bold and brash when we can hide behind a screen and prey on easy targets. Malia and Sasha Obama went through the ringer during President Obama’s terms. As if growing up isn’t hard enough, the Obamas and now Barron have to grow up in the public eye. And that eye sees everything, and thinks it knows everything too.
No matter who the President is, or what party he or she represents, the fact of the matter is that their family isn’t them. It isn’t Barron Trump who’s tweeting about climate change or signing executive orders. And it wasn’t Malia or Sasha who signed Obamacare into law. We have to learn to separate a President we may or may not like from kids who did nothing wrong and who are just trying to grow up.
Let’s take some advice from our ever-graceful former First Lady: “When they go low, we go high”. Many of us are quick to condemn anyone who attacked the Obama family (for good reason!). But we often forget that that same nastiness can exist within ourselves, too. It’s time for us to prove that we can go high, even when we’re upset and angry, and practice common decency regardless of political party.
We can stand up against policies we don’t approve of without tearing a ten-year-old down. We can have intelligent debates without resorting to ridiculing and petty name-calling. And, hopefully, we can set an example for all the kids (Presidential or not) who are growing up in this turbulent political climate: to go high regardless of the circumstances and value humanity and decency above all.