by Sylvester Brown, Jr.
We’re in a global pandemic. Names of the dead or dying scroll across our news feeds daily like the New York Stock Exchange's ticker tape. Because of the government's ineptitude in handling the virus, many now ask just how low can this country go? President Donald J. Trump makes it easy for us to blame him; He’s so uninformed, so untruthful, so arrogant and so damn narcissistic he invites criticism.
We’re in a global pandemic. Names of the dead or dying scroll across our news feeds daily like the New York Stock Exchange's ticker tape. Because of the government's ineptitude in handling the virus, many now ask just how low can this country go? President Donald J. Trump makes it easy for us to blame him; He’s so uninformed, so untruthful, so arrogant and so damn narcissistic he invites criticism.
For me though, as a researcher, writer and consummate
observer, I can’t escape a historical truth: America has been here before. And
that, my friends, is what’s so down right bone-chilling.
I don’t have the luxury to support
the simplistic “Make America Great Again” mantra. Unlike so many others, I must
flip through the Rolodex of history to decipher if such a time ever existed.
Were we “great” when we erased millions of Native Americans from their native land?
Were we magnificent during the 400 years of slavery and legalized oppression? Was
it our shining moment when we dropped atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, killing more than 100,000
people? Was our response to the 2001 terrorist
attacks wonderful? Brown University’s “Costs of
War Project” conservatively estimates that at least 480,000 people (244,000 of which
were civilians) died in the U.S.- led wars in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Pakistan.
Presidents George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Theodore Roosevelt, Harry S. Truman, George W. Bush and more helmed the country when these atrocities occurred. Was their callous disregard for human life and liberties any more abhorrent than Donald Trump’s?
In the sphere of collective short term memory, it’s convenient to believe
that thousands of immigrant kids separated from their parents and locked in
cages; that alliances with foreign governments to sully our electoral process; that
the shredding of the Constitution; being a deathly stupid leader during a global health crisis and, now, willing to
sacrifice human lives for the economy-represents a new political low.
For me though...I can’t escape a historical truth: America has been here before. And that, my friends, is what’s so down right bone-chilling.
Sadly, it does not. It represents an American reality: Due to feelings
of white superiority, exceptionalism, patriotism, fear and prejudice, Americans will tolerate, excuse and justify just about anything. This is
indicative in polling data showing Trump’s approval numbers are at an
all-time high. Despite daily, televised
examples of his incompetence, pettiness, corporate avarice and disdain for non-billionaires,
50% of Americans love what he does.
Due to feelings of white superiority, exceptionalism, patriotism, fear and prejudice, Americans will tolerate, excuse and justify just about anything.
And that’s what’s so scary. Our “new normal” is old social, cultural and
political American standards. We, as a country, have revisited our dark place. We’ve
allowed FOX News, the election of our first black president, the myths of marauding,
raping, lawless immigrants and left-leaning media bias malarkey to
put us in a Nazi-like state. Like Hitler, Trump. the creative con man, backed by an army
of obliging minions, has simply swooped in and propagandized our fears.
We have revisited our dark place
We now exist in a bizarre environment where it’s not political
suicide to publicly speak of letting old people die so corporations can thrive. It’s a surreal time, in the wake
of the powerful #MeToo movement, when a candidate who bragged about
grabbing women by their genitalia is in office, idolized by evangelicals and supported
by half the populace. Suddenly, it’s a badge of honor when a tyrant
demands praise before releasing life-saving medical supplies and equipment when
Americans are sick and dying.
We’re in a terrifying place and not just because of the coronavirus. We’re
suffering from the pandemic of justified, collective, selfish ignorance. We’re
once again at a crossroad. We’re in that
familiar, deadly space where real, live people can be exiled, annihilated, ostracized
and tossed aside for the greater good of corporate greed.
We’re in a terrifying place and not just because of the coronavirus. We’re suffering from the pandemic of justified, collective, selfish ignorance.
Trump is but a glaring symptom of a metastasized societal cancer. He
ravages because we’ve willingly fed off poison for decades. Because we live in “the
now” and have not learned from our collective mistakes, the proverbial ball is
in court and the “new low” has yet to be determined.
And that is what’s so damn frightening.
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Sylvester Brown, Jr. is a former columnist for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, founder of the Sweet Potato Project, an entrepreneurial program for urban youth and author of “When We Listen: Recognizing the Potential of Urban Youth.”
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