The end of the sonnet Emma Lazarus wrote, to be placed on the base of The Statue of Liberty, which sits at the entry to the New York Harbor is, as follows:
“Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!”[12]
According to Donald Trump, the Give me should be replaced by Go away, and the Send these should be rewritten as Do not send these… Trump has vowed to deport those who are here to work the fields, but do not have immigrant status. He has vowed to deport those who are here to complete their studies or perform technical skills, without becoming citizens. He has developed a long list of nations from which he will not accept immigrants, because they are “terrorist nations.” They also adhere to some other religion than Christianity or Judaism. He wants no Muslims in this country. He wants no Blacks in this country, because “They are tainting our blood.” In other words, he believes in White Supremacy and Black racism, and will fight to maintain his “superior” status.
He admires Adolph Hitler and wants to pattern his life after that of Hitler. So far, Trump has done exactly that, following the same steps as Hitler in destroying a democracy and replacing it with a dictatorship. Hitler’s first steps were to consolidate his power; Trump has also done exactly that. He now has the judiciary, legislative and intelligence gathering agencies under his control. He has formed his own secret police. They are not called the Gestapo this time around. This time, they are called The Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency, or ICE for short. What’s next? War, and takeover of relatively defenseless countries (Panama, Greenland, Haiti and Cuba come to mind).
Trump will justify these selfish, unlawful land grabs as necessary for the defense of the United States of America; he will justify these land grabs as necessary for our survival, just like Hitler did, the last century. I lived through all of that, watching Hitler rise to power, show hatred directed toward a minority, then driving his nation into war and invasion of adjacent lands. I now see that same sequence of events playing out again in this century, except this time the evil dictator will be Donald Trump, and we will be the evil nation. Déjà vu. The real reason for these illegal land grabs will be to show his power, and the power of the United States of America.
What worries me intensely is what he going to do about all the Blacks in our country? Is he going to round them all up, send them to concentration camps, then exterminate them; or will it be the Muslims he chooses to hate, gather up in concentration camps, then exterminate them, as if they were vermin: or is it the gay and transgender population he will choose to hate and exterminate? I do not put any, or all, of these targets past his anger and hatred.
Donald Trump will continue to emulate the steps Adolph Hitler took in his attempt to take over the entire European world, invade Africa, invade Russia, and threaten to invade England, except this time, Donald Trump wants to win in taking over those parts of the American continent that are easy targets and have resources he can exploit. He wants to be even more expansive than Hitler. He wants to become a greater man than Hitler, the most evil man of all time. What happens next depends on the alignment of nations that takes place as the whole world goes to war. Last century it was Adolph Hitler who was the evil dictator whipping the German people into a mass psychosis of hatred toward Jews and aggressive land grabs. This century it will be Donald Trump who is telling lie after lie to convince the American public this war is necessary to protect us and save us; he is developing a mass psychosis in this country. He will be the evil dictator of this century who is trying to take over all surrounding property, using the mighty power of the American fighting force, for “lebensraum” of creating a nation based on White Supremacy and the mythologies of Christianity and Judaism.
What happens to our valuable resources, which will be used to destroy civilization and pollute our lands and waters, rather than using those resources to build schools, hospitals, bridges, parks, and establish wildlife areas that are a joy to hike and observe other life at play, and in balance. How polluted will our planet be after WW III? I am afraid it may be too polluted for humans to live comfortably on this planet. I am praying that our home, planet Earth, might be able to recover.
I am deeply afraid that the greed and selfishness of two men, Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin, and the super wealthy oligarchs that support them, will lead us into World War III, with very dire consequences to follow. I’ve seen it before; now I am seeing it again.
I feel sorrow in my bones.
Thank you for continuing to sound the alarm with reason and passion sir. I just wish more were listening. Losing SCOTUS in particular to the evils of corruption was a two generational blow & perhaps even a permanent death blow to our Democracy. They’ve made it impossible for any checks and balances to curtail ehat is happening and guarantee absolute freedom from consequences foe those driving us into oblivion.
They have certainly done much to damage all the progress that has been made until now, from the beginning of our country. Checks and balances and due process are no longer something we can count on and it’s heartbreaking. We will keep doing what we can to protect our democracy.