An Apocryphal Story
This is a story of a village, mostly poor folks who worked in the field. The owner of the field, the store, the bank; lived on a big house on the hill overlooking the village and the little creek than ran beside it.
One night there was a fierce storm, the rains fell so hard, that the little creek rose up. The village was washed away, with just ruins left behind. Except, of course, for the house on the hill.
The owner barred his doors. There was plenty of food and water inside his home, he didn’t see any need to share his wealth with the unfortunate villagers.
Add your own ending:
- The villagers suffered and died. The owner discovered there was no one to work his fields, use his store or bank, and withered away.
- The villagers stormed the house. They got the food and water. It served the owner right.
- The owner came to his senses, and realized his wealth depended on everyone’s efforts. He shared his food and water, and he helped rebuild the village.
Our House on the Hill
We are the United States of America, the wealthiest nation in the world. We are the most successful democracy in the world, the world’s banker, the world’s store, and we produce much of the world’s food.
There is an obligation in success, to help those who are more in need. It’s not just a moral obligation, or a Biblical ordainment. It is the right thing to do, because in the end our world, like the apocryphal village, is dependent on everyone. In recognizing and acting on that dependence; it guarantees that the world will continue to come to us for our goods and services.
But today, America is acting like the “master” on the hill, barring our door, denying disaster around us, and turning inside ourselves. We are in danger of “withering away,” choice “1” in the story ending. We have already lost our influence in Europe, and Asia. Other suppliers in the world are replacing us. And we are doing it to ourselves.
This is no fluke, no accident of circumstance. This is a conscious act of the Trump Administration. The philosophical heart of the White House today, is a nationalist, racist, and selfish one. Here are some examples.
The Bahamas
Hurricane Dorian was at Force Five levels, 185 mile per hour sustained winds, when it hit the northern Bahama Islands. It equaled the strongest storm ever recorded in the Atlantic. But unlike most hurricanes, even hurricane Maria the Force Five one that struck Puerto Rico, Dorian stopped. The storm stayed on the northern Bahama Islands for over twenty-four hours, scouring the surface, then drowning it with huge storm surges.
Dorain was like an F3 Tornado, sitting in one place for over a day. It was so bad, that now, ten days after the storm is gone, the Bahamians still are searching for over 2500 missing and dead. 2500 from the population of the Bahamas is the equivalent to over 2 million dead or missing Americans. Over 60,000 are displaced by the hurricane, their homes, and towns, simply a pile of splintered wood and metal. That’s over ten percent of the population of the Bahamas.
The nation of the Bahamas is fifty miles off of the United States coast; 2 hours by boat, 30 minutes by helicopter. We are “the big house on the hill” for the damaged nation.
And our door is closed.
The Trump Administration refuses to grant Bahamians “Temporary Protected Status,” the legal designation for refugees from natural disasters like earthquakes and hurricanes (NBC.) All Bahamians travelling to the United States must have “proper documentation,” something difficult to do when all you escaped with is the clothes on your back. Mr. Trump himself worried about “very bad people and very bad gang members” sneaking into the US with the refugees (Washington Post.)
The Judge
Steven Menashi is a nominee to become a Judge on the US Appellate Court in Washington, DC. Menashi, of late, has been part of the White House “brain trust” headed by Stephen Miller, designing US policy for immigration. Menashi has written articles claiming that “ethnonationalism” is the only way for a democratic nation to survive. “Ethnonationalism” translates into a belief that a nation made up of a single race or ethnicity is the “best:” so much for the American melting pot.
Mr. Menashi also worries about “gynocentrism,” a pseudo-scientific pejorative used to attack women’s movements, and argues that need-based student loans were “unfair to rich people” (Huffpost.) He is the mirror image of his current boss, White House senior advisor Stephen Miller, and at forty years old, the President and Senator McConnell hope he impacts the Court for decades.
Mr. Menashi is a racist. He is a man trying to block the inevitable “browning” of America. Menashi represents everything dark in the American soul, and he is nominated for the second most important Court in the land.
Dying Kids
But perhaps the worst example of Ugly Americans is the new twist as Stephen Miller orchestrates a tightening of the immigration policy screws. It involves kids from other countries, legally brought to America to some of our best hospitals. They have conditions or diseases that only our advanced medical facilities can cure, they are alive because they are in America.
They, and their parents with them, have received notice: thirty days to get out and go home. It doesn’t matter what the treatment or prognosis is, and it doesn’t matter that for many of them, this is a death sentence. Mr. Miller and company are working on their ethnonationalist America; foreigners, and particularly foreigners of color, need not apply (NBC.)
The Ugly American
“America First” is a theme of the Trump Administration. He wants an America that looks after itself first, and only. Whether it was the Paris Climate accords, or the Trans Pacific Partnership, or attacking our allies in NATO; Mr. Trump claims to only have American interests at heart.
But “heart” is a misused term here, because the America of Mr. Trump, Mr. Miller, and Mr. Menashi is an America with no heart, no compassion, no sympathy. We, and as our President he unfortunately represents us all, are the Ugly Americans, the self-centered, all consuming, self-absorbed pattern that has been the “dark side” of America’s image since World War II.
It is ugly, and it’s exactly what we signed up for in the election of 2016.
