We can’t let Trump lull us into complacency
An article entitled “Post-Munich” written in 1939 by E. M. Forster, one of England’s most distinguished writers, was a wake-up call to a sluggish British public to the fast approaching clouds of war and some warnings from this article may apply to us today:
? “During the present decade, thousands and thousands of innocent people have been insulted and imprisoned and all these private miseries may be the prelude to an incalculable catastrophe.
? Perhaps history will point to these years as the moment when man’s inventiveness finally out-balanced his moral growth and toppled him downhill.
? How can we justify trivialities and hesitations? Ought we not to rise to the great dramatic conception which we see developing around us? The situation is tremendous; it has never been equaled because the world has never been so closely interlocked.
? But unimportant and unpractical people often foresee the future more clearly than do those whose are engaged in shaping it.
? This decade has fasted long enough and the crisis in particular has become a habit; indeed almost a joke.
? Worry is terribly insidious. It takes the joy out of life and it prevents one from observing what is happening to the human experiment. It tempts him to simplify, since through simplification, he may find peace.”
With these thoughts in mind, consider the following comments:
Remember what began in Germany during the third and fourth decades last century: the appalling and murderous treatment of Jews? Today, such treatment towards Muslims and other ethnic groups does not exist in this country, but those Muslims with legitimate documentation were banned or detained at airports under the first executive immigration order. What insulting and egregious treatment these people had to endure, and still may have to go through.
Any moral growth in this 70-year-old president of the United States appears never to have taken place, and probably never will, up to and including his departure from this life on earth.
This president is a joke. He not only spews forth numerous trivialities and damaging lies on social media; he also attempts to bully the press during his encounters with them and no doubt berates his servile White House counselors and staffers.
He offers no evidence to back up his wild statements nor does he have the decency to apologize for baseless comments when caught in a lie.
Sadly, last year a large segment of unpractical people in this country were wooed by this charlatan of a candidate for the presidency, and putting reason aside, voted him into the White House. Just think: a narcissistic, unqualified person such as Trump with the power and title of Commander-in-Chief! “Oh, Oy vey, what a schlemiel!” and he is in the possession of nuclear codes! – “Oh double, Oy vey!”
Reasonable people around the world must have been dumbfounded when they learned Trump took over the helm of a great democracy such as ours. One can at least thank providence for practical and thoughtful citizens of our country who will not sit back and be quiet about this dishonest president and his lapdog administration, but are determined to scrutinize every word and action coming out of this White House and from most of his Republican sycophants in Congress who are using him as a front to push through their legislative agenda.
The human experiment has suffered unimaginable blows to its growth during the last century and may never completely rid itself of authoritarian madness, but there is hope: freedom loving and sensible people at home and abroad who exhibit a determination to fight leaders who attempt to undermine foundational beliefs in democratic and liberal principles will always, at some moment in history, stand up and declare civilization will no longer tolerate lies and deception from its elected officials, and thank God for a free press!
Finally, consider Mr. Forster’s observations of last century; learn history’s lesson. Do not allow this deceitful president to continue to insult your sense of right and wrong and persuade you to fall for his lies. Don’t be lulled into complacency as the British people and its government once were; demand honesty and accountability from not only this president, but from all political leaders voted into office. We are not their servants; they are ours.
Edwin Lefevre聽is a resident of Monessen