By: Lily Fraser

Super Bowl LI, while sitting on my couch surrounded by family, friends, and dogs, the commercial break happened, disrupting the screams of Patriot and Falcons fans.

There were a lot of commercials that aired, including scientist Albert Einstein and Bai tea, but one that stuck out the most was the 84 Lumber commercial, a wood company that builds houses and doors, and plans for those who need help with a project.

This commercial features a mother and daughter are featured who decide to travel across Mexico in order to get into America. Throughout their journey, they experience thunderstorms, hunger, and thirst while the daughter continuously picks up red, white, and blue scraps of plastic that she spots while trudging along with nothing but a backpack and the clothes she is wearing. While hitch-hiking with other fellow emigrants of all ages, they are clueless as to what may happen.
Near the end of the commercial, you see American construction workers who are nailing, melding, and putting into place the wall that president Donald Trump has been planning on building since the beginning of his presidential campaign. While the workers greedily gulp down bottles of water, the exhausted mother and daughter struggle to maintain hydration.

The mother and daughter finally make it to the border of Mexico, but the wall is built, separating them from the new homeland they so desperately want. However, as the daughter pulls a handmade plastic-scrap American flag out of her bag, the mother sees a sliver of light coming out from the wall. As they walk up, there, placed in the middle of the concrete wall, a wooden door.

The mother and daughter push through, and as the commercial ends, one of the American construction worker is driving his pickup truck with slates of wood and electrical power tools strapped down to the back, with the saying displayed across the screen, “The will to succeed is always welcome here.”

There has been a huge amount of political controversy about whether or not to support 84 Lumber after the airing of their commercial. Reconsidering, a human is a human, no matter the skin tone, religion, background, or life status. People may think they’re superior because of their porcelain complexion, wealthy estate, and high paying job while living in the greatest country in the world, am I correct?  In reality, we are all the same, and should deserve the same amount of respect. There has been an past majority of illegal migration of the people over the Mexican border, and with an idea from Donald Trump, the “right” thing to do is building a wall, while using the America’s hard-earned money to permit them from entering.

This commercial, in particular, stood out more than most other social and economic issues, such as Audi automobile manufacturer, nabbing at the topic about women deserving equal pay. In the year of 2017, many people have opened up their opinions about a list of things: equality, birth control, abortions, and our current president and his decisions for the country.

After seeing this commercial, I found a strong opinion about it. People worry that immigrants, particularly Mexican immigrants, would cross the border without legal documents confirming that they are able to live, work, and seek medical care in the new country and are stealing the jobs that we strive for in the future. However, even though there are people who agree with the decisions, they also state that the immigrants are taking the jobs that most of us wouldn’t want to have voluntarily, like harvesting, trash collection, or any of the dirty or hard-labor jobs that we don’t drool over. It’s surprisingly ironic that some would say that they don’t want to put in the back-breaking labor, but are upset that someone wants to start a fresh, new beginning in a country where they are willing to put in the labor, and then rejects them.

84 Lumber has clearly stated that they are anti-Trump and against the idea of building a barrier between two races and their ways of living. Being friends with multiple people with Hispanic backgrounds or whose families crossed the Mexican border has made me more aware as to how they are treated as a whole as well. This commercial has brought up the hardships that immigrants go through and the desire that they crave for a new beginning, for new opportunities, and most importantly, a new way of life.

They believed that America was the place to be, with advanced medical care, better jobs, and possibly a prettier landscape to marvel at, but with about the 40% popular, nationwide vote for Donald Trump, they have dropped the idea and have started to plan ways around isolation.

From a Canadian living in America to those who support the wall and bash on 84 Lumber, shame on you. I highly doubt that you as American would enjoy the criticism that these people go through just to feel welcomed. In conclusion, Trump’s idea of building the wall is just plainly unintelligent and inhumane. Expecting Mexico to even pay a single peso towards the wall is extremely unrealistic. We have to start being more realistic about our decisions instead of excluding and pushing away up to 11.7 million immigrants out of our country. It might baffle a majority of people, but everyone in America is an immigrant except for Natives. Staggering, isn’t it?