Students react to President’s inauguration speech
Too young to vote in the November election, yet on the verge of adulthood.
On Friday, KION watched parts of President Trump’s inauguration speech with Gonzales High School seniors to get their take on the new commander in chief and his policies.
“When America is united, America is totally unstoppable,” President Trump said. “There should be no fear – we are protected, and we will always be protected.”
The students said they were happy Trump put hateful rhetoric aside to focus on the task ahead – Make America great again.
“I do think he has good intentions,” Janelle Gil said. “It wasn’t like before when he was very rude and racist. Now that he has this position of being president, he’s taking it more seriously and I will think he’ll do better.”
But not everyone was satisfied. Political analyst Dr. David Anderson believed the speech was a rehash of his campaign statements.
“A speech like this is supposed to be all-inclusive and there were opportunities in there to include people who did not support him or people who are so-called independent or whatever and there was no particular outreach to those people,” Anderson said.
He believes a lot of people will take a “wait and see” approach, like these students, who said they wanted Trump to have an open mind.
“His ideology doesn’t really depend on his own,” Eileen Valdez said. “There’s different perspectives of the way people think. America wouldn’t be America without the different people, known as the ‘Melting Pot,’ and as much as he tries to change it, it’s not going to because there’s different cultures.”
But one thing these kids can agree on is valuing immigration, education and jobs.
“I don’t want to work in the fields like my parents are working right now,” Elias Rico said. “I’m here for the American dream. That’s what they’re here for and I’m gonna live it.”
