By Angelina Newsom:
The election has come and gone. The inauguration has come and gone. Americans have settled in under a new administration and most of us have carried on with our lives, business as usual. According to certain organizers, however, women remain disenfranchised in the United States. I guess I didn’t get the memo, because not only have I served in the United States Army without issues, I was in a position of leadership—supervising men.
On March 8, the International Women’s Strike is calling on women around the world to take action. Their call to action is to mount a united front against President Donald Trump’s policies; international solidarity against “the man.” In other words, they want women not to show up to work, wear red, and shop at women and minority owned businesses—that’ll teach President Trump a lesson, right?
Not only that– this movement has referred to itself as militant. How do these women expect to be taken seriously when they are not being peaceful? While many may have the luxury of simply calling out of work, there are women who are first responders, law enforcement, and military. These women not only serve in important positions, but many put the wellbeing of others before their own. Personally, I don’t mix politics with business. There is no reason that personal beliefs, ideas, or protesting should interfere with employment.
Upon further investigation, it seems there are participants in these protests who should not even be in the United States. Rasmea Yousef Odeh is a Palestinian woman who became a United States citizen in 2004. She had been living in the US comfortably until 2014, when she was convicted of immigration fraud. It turns out that Odeh had lied about her past in order to secure citizenship in the United States.
In 1970, she was convicted of being a part of a terrorist bombing in Israel that killed two students. She served just 10 years in prison before she decided to come on over to the United States. Not only is it troubling that she was able to secure American citizenship without her criminal past coming to light, but she has the audacity to participate in militant calls to action within the United States. This should trouble all women who claim to be advocates for women’s rights. This should trouble women in general.
To add insult to injury, Odeh was granted a new trial on her immigration charge because she’s claiming that PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder) caused her to lie on her immigration paperwork. Meanwhile, there are women who have honorably served their country in many different ways, who have made the ultimate sacrifice in the name of fighting terrorism. There are women who are permanently disabled due to injuries suffered as a direct result of terrorism, the very acts that Odeh was convicted of committing. Instead of fleeing their country, proud American women have stepped up to serve in the Armed Forces. These militant organizations—and especially this terrorist who is in America fraudulently— do not speak for me.
Angelina Newsom is an OpsLens Contributor and U.S. Army Veteran. She has ten years experience in the military, including a deployment to Afghanistan in support of Operation Enduring Freedom. She studies Criminal Justice and is still active within the military community.
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