Ashamed of my country
I have to hand it to Donald Trump in one respect. He has wasted no time in changing the fundamental character of our nation, fulfilling within his first week in office a bedrock promise to act on one of his most ugly impulses: closing our borders to refugees. He has imposed a 120-day ban on immigration from seven Muslim countries and an indefinite bar to all Syrians who wish to flee oppression in order to reside here. It is instructive to note that the Trump family has no business interests in any of the countries on the list.
We now have a president who is willing to malign all honorable Muslims by classifying the actions of those who have sought to hijack their religion as “Islamic terrorists.” I wonder if using that incendiary term will immediately help to end what the president classified as “American carnage.”
Our military escapades in the Middle East and our failure to act when Syrian President Bashar al-Assad crossed the imaginary red line set by President Barack Obama helped to fuel the refugee calamity: men, women, children, infants and the elderly seeking to escape the hell that their country has become. They have overwhelmed neighboring nations, to whom we now say, “Too bad. Don’t look to us to take in these people or to help resettle them.”
Our beloved Statue of Liberty contains the following inspiring inscription:
“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-tossed, to me:
I lift my lamp beside the golden door.”
The only words that our president sees in that stirring message is “the wretched refuse of your teeming shore.”
Former first lady Michelle Obama created headlines and brought unfavorable attention to herself when she said, “For the first time in my adult life, I am really proud of my country.” I would say the opposite, “At this time in my adult life, I am particularly ashamed of my country.”
Oren M. Spiegler
Upper St. Clair