The Last Colossus

If our new Hate Pumpkin President does what he says he is going to do this week, he will use executive orders to shut America’s borders to immigrants, visitors and refugees from several predominantly Muslim countries, effectively delivering his promised ban on Muslims. He may also end the DREAMer program, which is the literal and figurative crushing of the American dream for more than 740,000 young immigrants. And, yes, he’s ordering we building (and taxpayers pay for) that fucking wall.

It goes without saying that all of this is all deeply, deeply upsetting. And it should also go without saying that this is all deeply, deeply un-American. At the base of the very symbol of our country. The statue that stands for everything we believe in. The mother of Exiles. Lady freaking Liberty, our essential credo is etched in bronze.

“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-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!”

It does not say a complete and not a “total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States until we can figure out what is going on.” Never mind that, since Sept. 11, not a single act of terrorism on U.S. soil was perpetrated by a foreign terrorist group. Not one. Instead they’ve been committed by U.S. citizens and legal residents. Let me repeat, they were committed by U.S. citizens and legal residents. In fact, white supremacists have actually perpetrated the most attacks. Queue Nazi ban in 5-4-3-2-never. So what then, does this ban accomplish? Is it just the a sly set up to registering and rounding up all legally residing Muslim American citizens? Is it just the deluded fever dream turned real-live policy of a deeply unhinged man untethered from reality who now has nearly unlimited power? How about both?

The ugly truth about our American experiment is while our ideals may be that of freedom and liberty, we’ve always feared the other. We are a nation of immigrants which has systematically distrusted and discriminated against groups of immigrant since our very inception. The Irish. The Chinese. The Japanese. So many others – simply because they were other. And why? Fear and the often irrational belief that these new arrivals were somehow taking their jobs. Wow, sound familiar?

But what so many today railing against “illegals” and “Muslims” don’t understand or care to realize is that this is exactly what they want. Those in power with powerful interests in keeping us fighting each other instead of them. Those who line their pockets with our labor and pass policies to hurt the most vulnerable among us. To put it simply, congratulation, you played yourself. Scapegoating has worked throughout history and will continue to work until we wake up and stand for each other instead of against.

So fuck Trump, fuck the Muslim ban, fuck turning away refuges, fuck ending DREAMers, fuck that fucking wall. Fuck it all. Resist.

p.s. I swear to the ballot box, the first Democratic lawmaker to stand up and be as badass as the Merriam-Webster dictionary and National Parks social media managers is the frontrunner for 2020.

p.p.s. Hey, "give him a chance, you might like it" crowd. Fuck right off. Like, right off.