DON'T JUDGE ME BY MY PASSPORT

there is an issue that's been on my mind for a long time and i feel like today is the right day for me to share with you guys so let's get right into it when the kova 19 pandemic started it became increasingly difficult to travel i had been traveling a lot during the months preceding the pandemics outbreak i had been in the middle east for a week then i spent a couple days in south africa and then i went to israel where my wife was going to be giving birth to a baby and i wanted to be home for a few months without any travel to be there for her and to help her out so in mid-january of 2020 i returned to israel where we were residing at the time and i spent a couple months with my family as those months progressed the pandemic broke out it became really difficult to travel borders started getting closed flights were getting canceled visas were getting revoked and before long the entire world was shut down from mid-january 2020 until september of 2020 i spent the entire time in israel without traveling anywhere there was even a two-month period where i stayed within one square mile of my home and did not leave because of all the coveted restrictions that we had in israel at the time as the spring ended and the summer began israel signed an agreement with greece to allow citizens from the two countries to travel to each other's countries without quarantine and without any restrictions which meant that if you are an israeli citizen or a greek citizen you can travel freely between the two countries and this was something i was looking forward to joining in on as well the problem is that i am not an israeli citizen i'm a u.s citizen and u.s citizens were not included in this agreement so even though i had been in israel the entire time and i certainly posed no more of a threat towards greece than any other israeli or any other foreign national visiting their country i was not allowed into greece because i was not an israeli citizen just to be clear i did not even attempt to get on a plane to greece because i had done my research and i knew they would not allow me in this led me to think about the absurdity of some of the laws that we have regarding entering and exiting countries here i was an american citizen wanting to travel legally in accordance with covet regulations but i was not allowed to do so simply because of the name of the country printed on my passport this led me to think about the millions and millions of other people who have issues traveling the world because of the country printed on their passport let me give you an example as an american citizen my passport allows me to travel to 183 countries either without a visa or where i can get a visa upon arrival that is awesome i am lucky to be a us passport holder but if i were from pakistan my passport would only allow me to visit 32 countries without a visa or with a visa on arrival if i was an iraqi citizen i could visit 27 countries without a visa or with a visa on arrival and if i came from afghanistan i'd only be allowed into 26 countries i do understand that there are political reasons and security reasons why certain people from certain countries are not allowed to travel freely as an american citizen would be able to do however i can also sympathize with the good people who come from these countries who are not allowed to travel to almost anywhere simply because of the name of the country printed on their passport i for one have no authority to change any of these laws and i certainly can't influence any governments to make any changes that would positively impact the way people can travel but all i can say is i wish there was a better way for us to figure out who was allowed into what countries and why there's an old saying that goes don't judge a book by its cover but unfortunately there are so many people who are impacted by this on a daily basis and are not allowed to travel simply because of the name of the country printed on their passports all i can do is hope and pray that one day we can create a better system that will help us determine who can enter which country based on people's actions based on people's intentions based on people's history based on responsibility not based on the name of the country written on a person's passport i think we can all agree that we shouldn't judge a book by its cover and we certainly shouldn't judge people by their passports thank you so much for watching and let me know what you think have a great day