And we have the audacity to consider America, the foremost democracy in the world? The beacon of hope and light to others?
We better take a deep breath before answering that one.
For all the anguish the current President of the United States, Donald J. Trump, and his Minions are causing us and those around the globe, the most serious questions we should be asking are about ourselves.
The most important is how white Americans (approximately 62 percent of the population) feel toward human beings with brown and darker skins in 2018?
On the surface, the answer to that is not promising in a large segment of American society.
We can begin with the knowledge that Trump’s racial views were well known long before he was elected to the highest office in the land in November 2016.
Trump launched his political career with a particular lie. One he knows would appeal to millions of white Americans. He claimed his immediate predecessor, Barack Obama — our first African American chief executive — wasn’t born in this nation. It turns out he was (Hawaii, 1961).
During that 2016 campaign, Trump offered, “Muslims shouldn’t be allowed in America,” and has since instituted a travel ban on Muslims from several countries.
He said that “Mexico is not sending us their best,” and alluded to Mexicans as “rapists.” Oh, yes, he also wants to build a wall along our boarder with Mexico — and have them pay for it. A wall? Isn’t that what they do in totalitarian societies? (i.e., Soviet Union. East Berlin, Germany. Early 1960s. Ring a bell?)
Yet, Trump received some 63 million votes from Americans.
If possible, Trump has ramped up his racism since being inaugurated on Jan. 20, 2017.
He’s said, “There are some very good people” among the Ku Klux Klansmen and Neo-Nazis.
Predominately black nations, like Africa and Haiti, are “s—-hole countries,” and added, “why aren’t we getting more immigrants from Norway (primarily white).”
When African-American players in the National Football League (NFL), expressed our Constitution’s First Amendment right of free speech (protesting police brutality), Trump blasted them as “sons a ———” and said they should be “fired.” Blacks are 70 percent of NFL players, while most season ticket holders are white.
Then came the last couple of months.
Predominately Hispanic/Latino people, many of them fleeing from violent situations in Central American countries, sought asylum along our southern boarder with Mexico.
Trump sneered that they are “infesting” our nation. He ordered their children, as young as infants and toddlers, be ripped from their parents and warehoused in ever-expanding detention centers. Many families may never be reunited.
Such inhumanity in America has not happened since slaveholders would often separate families in the days of black bondage.
With all the nastiness and hatred, I’ll finish with what may be the scariest thing written here.
Recent polls show at least 30 to 40 percent support for Trump — above 80 percent among Republicans (his party).
I rest my case.
