To me, the central point to ponder is summed up at the very end.
"...it's easier to behave as if Trump's malevolence is distorting us
rather than recognize that he is exploiting the avarice, bigotry, and
misogyny set deep
in the marrow of this country from its beginnings. For centuries, a
malignancy has existed in America. Our inability or unwillingness to
carve it out allowed
Trump to encourage it to metastasize. And that is not normal."
from the editorial by Renée Graham
Donald Trump is like the Mama Pheasant, pretending to drag a broken
wing, in order to lure a predator away from her brood. As long as we
focus on Donald Trump, his greedy privateers have a clear field in
which to plunder.
Carl Jarvis
On 7/10/17, Miriam Vieni <miriamvieni@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
This is a fantastic piece.
Miriam
From: blind-democracy-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:blind-democracy-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Bob Hachey
Sent: Monday, July 10, 2017 3:35 PM
To: blind-democracy@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [blind-democracy] A perfect Editorial for Independence Day
Hi all,
This editorial appeared in the July 4 issue of the Boston Globe. It
eloquently argues as many of us here have done that the trump presidency is
not the real problem; that Trump is merely a symptom of a much wider
problem. I think Howard zinn would have appreciated this one.
Here is confirmation that the Boston Globe is at least trying to fight
against the jingoism that is usually found in our Wall Stream Media.
Bob Hachey
The not-normal history of America
By Renée Graham .
This is not normal. Anyone who spends time on social media or cable news
has
certainly heard or read that phrase. Of course, it refers to the
deteriorating presidency of Donald Trump: his predawn Twitter rants against
the media and other perceived enemies; open disdain for the Constitution; a
cabinet of malicious incompetents; and his grifter's eye for using his
position for personal enrichment and turning Americans into his own ATM -
Always Taxpayers' Money. It's a natural response to what has been an
unnatural era since Trump was sworn in as the 45th president, yet this too
conveniently ignores an indisputable fact: America has never been normal.
Independence declared while subjugating others was not normal. Slaughtering
a race of people and nearly eradicating a culture that existed on this land
long before white people in funny hats landed here was not normal. Slavery,
and its vile cultural and political echoes, were and are not normal. Men
determined to seize control of women's reproductive rights is not normal. A
241-year-old nation that has never elected a woman, a Jew, Latino, or Asian
as president is not normal. Leaders who adapt the chilling line from George
Orwell's "Animal Farm" - "All animals are equal, but some animals are more
equal than others" - as a governing principle is not normal. Treating
health
care, housing, and good schools as a privilege for the few and not a right
for all is not normal. Criminalizing and demonizing those who practice a
particular religion is not normal. Forgetting about soldiers still in
harm's
way and ignoring the great debt owed to our veterans is not normal. Fearing
and distrusting those sworn to serve and protect is not normal. With police
killing, without accountabilty, so many people of color that such fear and
distrust is wholly justified is not normal. Branding as "illegal" those who
come to this country undocumented to escape persecution or seek a better
life is not normal. Tearing apart families through deportation without any
legal recourse is not normal. Allowing elected officials to get away with
treating our democracy as a theocracy is not normal. Any American city or
town with water too polluted to drink is not normal. That high-ranking
pharmaceutical company officials and complicit doctors aren't spending
decades behind bars for promoting as safe drugs they knew to be highly
addictive is not normal. More than 59,000 people dead from opioid overdoses
in 2016 - the most recorded in a single year - is not normal. America
having
more incarcerated people than any nation in the world is not normal. Hiding
behind the Second Amendment as thousands of men, women, and children are
lost to gun violence every year is not normal. Failing to enact even the
most basic gun-control measures, after 20 elementary school kids and six of
their educators were murdered in 2012, is not normal. Condemning a foreign
terror threat while ignoring the insidious threat of too many angry men
with
too many guns is not normal. Neglecting the epidemic of domestic violence
is
not normal. To be outraged by long-festering inequities because they're now
threatening you and not "them" is not normal. None of this lets Trump off
the hook. His presidency is a catastrophe. He is attacking institutions and
dangerously weaponizing his supporters to defend him from his detractors,
especially journalists. Still, it's easier to behave as if Trump's
malevolence is distorting us rather than recognize that he is exploiting
the
avarice, bigotry, and misogyny set deep in the marrow of this country from
its beginnings. For centuries, a malignancy has existed in America. Our
inability or unwillingness to carve it out allowed Trump to encourage it to
metastasize. And that is not normal. Renée Graham can be reached at
renee.graham@xxxxxxxxx <mailto:renee.graham@xxxxxxxxx> . Follow her on
Twitter @reneeygraham
