by Sue DeGregorio-Rosen, RN, CLNC, Contributing Editor
The Trump Administration mimics a fracture in the crust of this planet accompanied by a displacement of one side of the fracture with respect to the other in a direction parallel to that fracture. That fracture is “We, the People”
There is no argument, no excuse that can change this description. No matter how biased an individual or group is or becomes, this act of defiance within our own country has legitimized live-in conditions that are comparable to a Third World country. The question is whether the polarization is irreversible.
We have people living under dire conditions. Take a good look at our city streets, littered with a homeless population in the richest country in the world. Take a good look at areas like West Virginia where the oil and gas industry write its own laws, the teachers are among the worst-paid in the nation, and the Opioid epidemic has reached peak levels.
Therefore, we need to ask who President Trump really is? We all know his blank promises about making America great again. We also all know that he refers to people as “animals” when he speaks of immigrants and sanctuary states, such as California.
Because Donald Trump was elected president he is responsible for our issues, and he took on that responsibility when he was sworn into office. There is no more “past blame” that he systematically and continuously uses to excuse his inability to obliterate any of our requests.
I read, with interest, in The Washington Post the following, “The slippery inexactness of Trump’s language is often ascribed by his detractors to the deficiencies of his verbal skills and his lazy tendency to return again and again to the same stock words and phrases. Trump’s admirers frequently cite his use of the English language as key to his success in convincing so many that he is not a traditional politician. After all, the way in which he uses the word “animals” is drawn from common street-corner or barroom talk. It’s not a usage he invented.”
This is a language of a far-right universe. It’s not conservative. It’s authoritarian. Words have effects just as the use of the word, terrorists. Language can seduce our youth and align them with white supremacy. This is the message he sends to our sons and daughters. They become his supporters and true believers. His goal is to dehumanize others by referring to them as “animals”, the press as “fake news” to destabilize and fill emptiness with a sense of belonging to making America great again. It’s the extremes and meanness that are distressing.
Trump made those awful statements at a White House gathering last Wednesday because California officials opposed to what Trump, in his introductory remarks, called “deadly and unconstitutional sanctuary state laws.” They offered, President Trump said, “safe harbor to some of the most vicious and violent offenders on Earth, like MS-13 gang members, putting innocent men, women and children at the mercy of these sadistic criminals.”
We all know that we are a country of immigrants that came here and stole the lands of the native American, but sometimes we must be reminded. We must make sure that our children and grandchildren understand that. It is up to us to make sure that history, the history of this country is not lost in the abyss of this fault we now suffer from, and we do suffer.
Donald Trump is the epitome of dishonesty, he is purposefully deceptive, unpredictable, and erratic. He is a showman, a TV star, a real estate mogul that is still working like he is on a reality show, but this is our show.
Those of us that are members of the “baby boomers” generation, that Donald Trump was born into, grew up quickly, during a time of war, a time of protest, a time when we sang ” Give Peace a Chance”. We were convinced we could change that world. We witnessed the assassinations of our young president, JFK, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and Bobby Kennedy…….and to this day, we don’t understand why those tragic events were meant to happen.
Fast forward to 9/11…devastation took hold of us, a nation of sadness, a nation filled with pain. Yet, we continued to love one another, to connect, to help each other mend, to grieve, and then tried to rebuild what we had lost with our broken hearts, and so much suffering. Still, there was no peace.
This is an important part of history, one that must not be forgotten. We elected our first black president, Barak Obama. We elected out first woman to run for the highest-ranking office, Hillary Clinton. Are we back pedaling in our strides to create an environment that is worthy for our upcoming generations?
Peace and Love remain in our angry hearts, but if we remain angry, we will find no love, we will have no peace.
And that, my friends, is our fault and the chasm of darkness in which we will descend.
