We are bystanders in America’s regression

America is headed for a swift decline and we’re all paying the price.

Trends have a penchant of repeating every twenty years. The 1990s grunge made a return in the 2010s with flannels and chokers adorning the racks and shelves in department stores.

The 2020s, however, have taken inspiration from several different decades; Farrah Fawcett’s hair from the 1980s, low rise jeans from the 2000s and even firing squads from the 1960s.

It seems that old legislation is also making a comeback — in addition to leg warmers. On March 24, Idaho Gov. Brad Little signed a bill that would permit execution by firing squad.

Though death by firing squad is constitutional, state courts have ruled the method as unconstitutional and only four states authorize it. Execution by firing squad has only been performed four times since the 1960s.

Many pharmaceutical companies no longer sell the drugs for lethal injection because they are used for executions.

If pharmaceutical companies no longer want to participate in the often flawed system of capital punishment, resorting to excessive force seems like a temporary and violent solution.

And yet, this is only one of the many pieces of legislature that has set our country back a decade — or six.

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White Mississippi lawmakers have made efforts to make appointed courts in a Black-majority community, and are now being deemed as

“Jim Crow 2.0.” As in the laws that justified the segregation of Ameri - cans a mere 60 years ago.

Fashion is used as a tool for many to express or costume themselves. What you do — or do not — wear can communicate to the world. So fear not Republican legislators,

Markus Meneses/The Collegian

you can still be a racist without a klan robe.

Some of these steps backwards don’t even require the creation of new legislature at all.

After Roe. v. Wade was over- turned, it brought a magnifying glass to issues that we thought were already resolved. Now same-sex marriage and interracial marriage are potentially on the chopping block once again.

Here we have three issues that affect all American people in some capacity, that have been sanctioned and made into a right that has to now be debated once more.

America is regressing. And rather than focusing on issues that are actually affecting our citizens, we create problems out of thin air to solve instead of the ones right in our faces.

According to the Gun Violence, We have already surpassed 100 mass shootings in 2023, and we aren’t even a quarter of the way into the year. But instead of creating legislation to stop the preventable murders of children, legislators are more concerned about whether drag queens at libraries are damaging the youth. Luckily for them, there might not be any more youth to worry about.

No matter how many innocent people are killed, calls to representatives or how many times you revisit the names of those taken away far too soon, our efforts never are enough to elicit change.

Until we can identify the actual issues that plague Americans, we will never be able to move forward. The only thing we should be seeing from the 1950s is a poodle skirt, not the barbaric ways that they treated Americans.

The future of this country’s democracy has been turned into a farce due to the first ever criminal indictment of a former president.

With former President Donald Trump’s indictment on March 30, there is now the question of whether he will be eligible to be the nominee for the Republican candidacy, or if he will be behind bars.

If this were to happen, who would take his place? What is the current landscape of the 2024 election? There doesn’t seem to be an end to the questions about the country’s future. As for the Democrats there have only been two candidates who have declared they are running, including President Joe Biden.

It feels as if the political theater that the American people are being treated to right now is such a farce that it’s no wonder why, according to Pew Research Center, public trust in the government is at a historic low.

A former president was indicted in a case of providing hush money to an adult film actress. That’s a true sentence. That’s the foolishness that is playing out in front of our very eyes across every social media platform and every news outlet.

The man that reigned terror over America for four years but somehow felt like a decade, is now getting indicted on probably his smallest offense. It’s almost insulting to those who have had to keep up with his journey from

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his initial campaign to now.

It’s like if there is a five-car pileup, and the one who caused it gets brought in because they forgot to use their turn signal. Yes, it’s a problem, but can we focus on the heaps of wreckage that was left behind as well?

This is an insane time to be living in. What’s even worse is that even this indictment doesn’t look like it’s going to stop the Republican base from possibly nominating him. Trump was able to twist a being indicted on more than 30 charges of business fraud into what he called a “witch hunt.”

The worst part is that it worked. In the YouTube comments of the initial reports of Trump’s indictment, there were many people saying that they didn’t believe the jury was acting fairly. One commenter even emphasized that nowhere in the constitution does it say that having a criminal charge makes you ineligible for being the U.S. president, and isn’t that just a scary thought?

Trump’s base still believes he is worthy of being elected the president of the free world again. America is in a precarious situation and for some reason an indicted man is a candidate for presidency.

And if, by some miracle, Trump isn’t nominated as the Republican candidate, what will happen then? Many Republicans are hopeful that Republican Sen. Ron DeSantis will put his hat into the ring. Yes, DeSantis, the “Don’t Say Gay” bill supporter and the politician who is constantly at odds with “Disney” due to their “wokeness.”

If either of these candidates are elected, the future of the American people is incredibly dismal. These men don’t have what’s best for America at heart. They only believe in protecting themselves and their careers, and will do whatever it takes to keep their images as spotless as possible. Like paying hush money to an adult film actress to cover an affair.

“Now bow your heads in prayer.”

A paradigm in schools, sports games and conferences across the very nation that preaches the separation of church and state.

In the historic Christian society that we currently have, it is very normal to encounter dozens of denominational churches and places of worship, in fact according to Pew Research Center just over 70% of people are of a Christian faith.

The fact that the overwhelming majority of the U.S. is Christian is not surprising. The majority of my friends and the surrounding community are. But, what is not only surprising and hypocritical is the usage of the phrase “separation of church and state” while having prayers in sports games, national anthems and award banquets.

It seems that it’s okay as long as it’s the Bible we’re talking about.

Because let’s be honest with ourselves, if any other religious minority were to pray in public and as frequently as Christian prayers are, then hate crimes would be more rampant then they already are. However, we live in a society whose “norm” is Christian values, one religion should not have precedence over another even in social settings.

The U.S. can do better and so can the American people.

As a woman who wears a hijab, I am constantly bombarded by people that want to “pray over me” and give me a complementary Bible. I’m not blind, I know they have an agenda in mind but why isn’t the same concept of “separation of church in state” implied in the Establishment clause acted upon in public?

The experience was and will always be one of the funniest things I had to go through as a minority but it needs to stop. Unless I explicitly ask someone about their religious beliefs, respectfully, keep it to yourself as I keep mine to me.

Having to constantly say “No, I’m okay” to people that give me Bibles was a part of being a Muslim American I did not expect to see.

The climate since religious persecution has become tremendously calmer but I would expect the same sympathy given to them to be given to me when I’m just going about my day, to be left alone. Especially as the Constitution makes an effort to be independent of a religion, maybe not try to convert me?

Despite this, I know that not everyone thinks with no consideration of people who aren’t Christian. Most people are very tolerant and don’t care about what someone wears or follows. But to the ones that feel the need to ask forgiveness for me, I promise I love Jesus as much as you do and you don’t need to prove it to me.

On another note, I am very thankful, as a college student, to have the overextended Christmas break. A month full of nothing but staying indoors and roaming the streets finding beautiful house decorations is a part of my childhood.

Considering my bias towards more free time and living in a Christian society, I think being given more time to rest during the weekends, Christmas themed lattes and drinks and cute house lights is a good start into being more inclined towards a community without the inkling to assign a religion to me.