I have always been a patriotic American. I love the United States.
To me, this country has always represented the words of welcome–the poem by Emma Lazarus– attached to the statue of Liberty.
Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame,
With conquering limbs astride from land to land;
Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand
A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame
Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name
Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand
Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command
The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame.
“Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!” cries she
With silent lips. “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!”
The golden door is closed.
We no longer want those “huddled masses yearning to breathe free.”
We arrest and deport “the homeless, tempest-tost” to brutal countries where they know no one.
Trump promised to expel rapists, murderers, “the worst of the worst.” I was in agreement.
Instead, people with no criminal records are being arrested: in their homes, their workplaces, their schools, on the streets.
Mothers, fathers, children, students, hard-working people who committed no crime. Even tourists.
My father’s father immigrated from Poland to the U.S. in 1858. You read that right. He was a teenager. My father, his youngest child, was born in 1903. My grandfather, who arrived penniless, became a butcher in Savannah.
My mother fled from little Bessarabia at the end of World War 1, arriving on a large ship filled with home-going American troops. She, her mother, and her little sister did not speak English. They had just enough money to buy train tickets to Houston, where my grandfather worked as a tailor and saved up enough money to send for his family.
My mother was 9 years old when she arrived. She always loved this country passionately.
If my family had not left Europe, they would have all ended up in a concentration camp and been gassed, as were all their relatives who remained behind.
My family was raised in Houston with a deep sense of love and gratitude for America.
Do I want open borders? No.
I want a fair immigration system that is orderly and just. What is happening today is horrible. Frightening. Ugly. Disgusting.
I am embarrassed by the sight of masked men grabbing people off the streets, embarrassed that they beat people up, handcuff them, drag them away in unmarked cars. Embarrassed that such things could happen here. Not in America.
But that’s not all.
We have a President who is vulgar, coarse, ignorant of history, and admires the worst dictators in the world. Putin. Kim Jung Un. The thug in El Salvador.
He picks fights with our friends, neighbors, and allies. He threatens to seize Greenland and the Panama Canal. He threatens to leave NATO. He abandons Ukraine, which has bravely fought off the Russian war machine since 2022.
He insisted on a budget that will eventually kick millions of people off Medicare. He killed SNAP, which provided food assistance to people who need it. He defunded green energy. He defunded any federal programs intended to mitigate climate change.
He killed USAID, withdrawing food and medical care for millions of people. People will die of hunger and of preventable diseases.
Whatever he doesn’t like is “woke,” “Marxist,” “radical left.” Whatever requires kindness, compassion, and care for others is “leftwing” and “woke.” In his evil worldview, kindness and compassion are for suckers.
He claims to be a Christian and relies on his Christian nationalist base, the people who think America should be a “Christian nation.” If any of them had ever read history or even the Constitution, they would know that the Founders insisted upon religious freedom and opposed ANY establishment of religion. They most certainly did not want their new nation to have a religious character.
In short, we currently have a government that ignores the Constitution, that is animated by cruelty, and that revels in fomenting hatred of others.
That’s why I will not celebrate today.
But I pledge to work towards restoration of the America I love. So long as I have breath, so long as I can type, I will devote my days to reclaiming the dream.
