Today, our constitutionally-protected media, so vital to the functioning of a democratic society, is undeservedly under attack for unmasking the lies and deceits emanating from the White House, as the new administration attempts to introduce a modern day dystopia in which an Orwellian Ministry of Truth will teach us Newspeak.
In this dystopia, an apprentice president can fire a career Department of Justice lawyer, the acting attorney general who represents the country (not the White House) and whose duty is to uphold the rule of law, because she refuses to defend an executive order which she does not believe is lawful.
In this dystopia, the media has become the “opposition party” and the White House promotes an alternative reality of “competing truths,” as though two mutually exclusive facts can exist at the same time.
There can be but one truth and we rely on the media to expose the truth behind self-promotional government press releases, photo ops and the tweets of the narcissistic occupant of the Oval Office.
In this make believe world of alternative facts, fake news and conspiracy theories, where lies, falsehoods, bogus claims, baseless assertions and delusions masquerade as truth, we are asked to disbelieve the media because one man, George Soros, is financing the attacks on Donald Trump by globalists and the media they control.
We are asked to believe that these attacks are motivated by a hatred of the United States and a desire to destroy our culture, that Donald Trump isn’t anti-immigrant, only pro-U.S.
We are expected to believe that George Soros is the devil incarnate and that the election of Donald Trump represents the triumph of the faithful over the unbelievers.
Whatever the labels, pro-U.S. or anti-immigrant; anti-globalist or anti-Semitic; cultural protectionism or religious, racial and ethnic discrimination, it’s like Gertrude Stein’s rose.
Only it doesn’t smell very sweet. Bigotry by any other name is still bigotry.
“America First” they shout, little realizing the roots of that isolationist, nationalist and discriminatory slogan.
And, sadly, this assault on the press and immigrants resurfaces some of the worst moments in our nation’s history, when xenophobic fearmongering led to Americans burning Irish Catholics alive, banning Chinese for decades, denying visas to Jews attempting to escape the Holocaust, interning Japanese-American citizens and enacting restrictive immigration laws which established quotas to exclude people who were seen as “others.”
And just what is the culture, religion, ethnicity and values that our newly-elected government is seeking to protect?
Do we really want to return to the days when that translated into a white, Anglo-Saxon, Protestant America?
Where other races, religions and ethnicities were despised and rejected?
“We don’t want them here,” Mr. Trump proclaims in the name of protecting us from terrorism.
Yet there is no evidence showing our previous vetting procedures have failed to prevent terrorists from infiltrating our shores.
Meanwhile, leading Republicans have exposed the fallacy of Mr. Trump’s exclusionary executive order, calling it “a self-inflicted wound that may do more to help terrorist recruitment than to improve our national security.”
And, yes, the terrorists have already posted the order online to further their recruiting efforts.
Moreover, the order strikes at the very foundation of our 21st century technology-based economy, which was enriched by immigrants and markets its products to the world.
The United States is a nation built on the dreams of immigrants.
As they prospered, our country prospered. To deny entry to this generation’s refugees because of their religion, race or ethnicity is to deny the very essence of America.
Today, we see a new administration in Washington determined to change the very definition of what it means to be an American.
They want to build a wall against those who share the same hopes and dreams as our ancestors (yes, even Mr. Trump’s ancestors), who came to this country to escape persecution and build a new life and who enriched our nation in the process.
Lady Liberty is shedding tears as Emma Lazarus’s sonnet is changed to “Keep your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free. The wretched refuse of your teeming shore. Don’t send the homeless, tempest tossed to me. I extinguish my lamp and close the golden door to thee.”
This is not my America and I hope and pray that this is not your America.
Jay N. Feldman
Port Washington
