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WANASiNG £BfT08 LARISA KARR
NEiSEBITOR MAGGIE HADDOCK
ASSISTAM MliS E0IT08 KATiE DEVOE
AREEBITBR SARAH SHAOBURNE
SAMANTHA SAVERY
SPORTS EBIfOi EMILY SPIES
PHOTOSRAPMy EOlfOB BRYCE ALBERGHINI
MiJlTWEDIA EBIT8R SARAH FORSHEY
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ABVEgTtSWS iANAfiEB KATIE RITCHIE
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QfSTRIiOTIBN MANA8E8 ELIZABETHIWALKER:
FACIflTY ADVISER MfCHAEL GOUGfY , :T
Americans should take
responsibilty for global issues
The Biue Banner is UNG Asheville's,
student newspaper. We publish each:
Tuesday except during summer:
sessions, f!.nals week and hotiday
breaks, uur office is located in Karpen
Half 019.
The Blue Banner is a designated forum
for free speech and welcomes letters to
While we sit comfortably in
our cushy lives as university
students in the United States,
in Myanmar, Rohingya Muslim
refugees are being hacked and
shot to death.
Some may question, what
this issue has to do with us in a
country on the other side of the
world?
As a part of a university that
consistently drills into us the
importance of being global cit
izens, it is imperative we keep
abreast of the news happening
in other countries. President
Trump oscillates on the issue of
addressing the plight of the Ro
hingya, from completely ignor
ing human rights abuses in Asia
during his trip to the continent
last November to declaring the
U.S. will pledge military support
to end the crisis in Myanmar.
The Rohingya massacre, with
an estimated 10,000 individu
als killed in December alone,
has recently been compared to
the Rwandan genocide, where a
million people were killed in one
month alone. While these num
bers are obviously considerably
smaller, it is a crisis that is esca
lating on a day-to-day basis and
it is a crisis that does not seem to
end anytime soon.
While there are issues in the
U.S. that remain relevant to pro
test, we as American citizens
should include the slaughter of
minorities in other countries in
addition to women’s rights and
Black Lives Matter inside our
opposition. By putting pressure
on Trump and other American
politicians to address the crisis
in Myanmar, we can use our
privilege to raise awareness of
a people who are being grossly
overlooked and left to die in a
country that gamers little-to-no
publicity.
The people of the U.S. are
oftentimes in their own little
bubble and have been so for too
long. With the growing advent of
awareness about issues that have
plagued our own country for so
long, it is also time we stand up
and assume the role of global cit
izens to fight for people in other
countries who do not possess the
voices we have become so ac
customed to having.