Uncle Sam has pulled his hat down over his face. Lady Liberty is turning red with embarrassment and shame. The blindfold over the eyes of Justice has slipped. What is happening here in America? We are turning into a banana republic, prey to the same lack of justice, of equality, of opaque government. Increasingly this country has begun to hold its breath, waiting for the umpteenth shoe to fall. We are just waiting for the night squads to come knocking on the doors at 4 AM, arriving to take away opponents of Trump.
How has this happened? Why has it happened? Why has the President become both a laughing stock to the world even as he is its most dangerous persona of power. Disappointment in life. Disappointment re security for one generation and in hope and dreams of the future for another. The ugliness of the acceptance of hatred of others as part of the mainstream of life and a President who embraces it and accepts its support. That is how.
Just as we have become accepting of excuses for our children's misbehaviors, negating any learning they might make of their errors, we have made excuses for the poison that spews out of that man's mouth. Sarcasm is the latest one, but truly! When a man constantly rants and raves about his desire to remain in office, how acceptance of the 2020 results will depend on who wins, or when he threatens the liberty and freedom of the press - when it criticizes him, when he has nothing better to do with his time than to fire people, tweet poison pen messages on Twitter, or endlessly go on vacation to his posh golf clubs and play for a huge percentage of his time, then yes, he is a comic figure, good for laughs and shakes of the head - but also a figure of tragedy for us, the people of this country. It is not sarcasm.
Dumping people. Anyone remember or recall the dumping of Jews living in Germany into the freezing no man's land between Germany and Poland. No food, no shelter, no water, no hope. People as victims of hate, as pawns of a ruthless monster and the actions of Trump, his plan - which has begun already - to use immigrants as pawns, never mind their humanity, to make his point! Horrible. Inhumane. And totally contradictory of his plan to halt immigration for now more will come as they can expect transportation away from the border into deeper within the country. Yay for them and shame on us!!
He has set up a system wherein the law is twisted and perverted, refusing to heed subpoenas, ignoring the law, acting as an absolute monarch. Dangerous behavior and we had better wake up and smell that danger, the shocks awaiting us as we find ourselves waking up one day to a fait accompli, with troops in the streets, new laws in place, and roundups of opposition in full force. Think this impossible? Think again and reread the news and the essays and opinion pieces from the beginning of this shameful and dangerous era in our history and then think again.
Willing to place parents in prison for long terms when they have done nothing other than what has been going on since the beginning of time, parents using their funds to keep children in school, in better schools but allowing crooks and cheats, greedy people who break the law, to remain in office, using taxpayer funds - sorry, I cannot absorb this. Yes, it is unfair to others when money comes into play, but surely there are worse crimes. The shame alone for the parents and their kids, the strains of family life, the loss of jobs - enough! And no, I have never had that kind of money and my kids, as most other kids, made it on their own merits and I am proud of them for that. We have lost our sense of priorities.
"Lizard Brain" is the latest name for Trump, a fitting one for a man who is cold blooded, who makes up cruel names for people he dislikes or hates and who certainly do not like him, acting as a poisonous toddler rather than as a President should. How have we gotten to this point?
More to the point, how do we fix this? The first step is to insist on obedience to the laws of the country, of the Constitution. Another, is to shout out the truth about the nakedness of this would be emperor and how he is harming his very supporters, ripping away their social safety net even he says he is their only hope. We need to recognize the fact that we are now in a squalid slum of our own making. Other countries are refusing to include us now in their talks. They are building the walls that this man so wants - but these walls will isolate us from any share in world decision making. We will be the ones walled out.
Folks, time is running on and I wonder how much sand is left in the hourglass of our continued life as a democracy, as a country which respects all people, as a land of hope and dreams. I fear there is little left.
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