It’s not an easy time to be American.
Our country, like many others, has been ravaged by Coronavirus, with over 106,000 deaths. Unemployment is at all time record highs. The economy is devastated. And to those flash-dry timbers, the videos showing the last words of an unarmed Black man gasping, “I can’t breathe” as four police officers knelt on him were the match.
America is in flames. People I know talk about joining what they insist were peaceful protests only to have police shoot rubber bullets and tear gas. Small business owners tell how everything they own has been looted, burned, destroyed. A friend said he and his family huddled in their apartment in Washington DC as people ran down their street randomly setting buildings on fire.
Instead of offering leadership and trying for communication, reconciliation, or at least understanding, our president’s immediate knee-jerk reaction is to tweet threats that “… when the looting starts, the shooting starts.” Or to lambaste governors in a tirade warning them not risk appearing “weak” by failing to use force.
‘You have to dominate,’ Mr. Trump told the governors. If governors failed to take a strong hand, he said, the protesters were ‘going to run over you, you’re going to look like a bunch of jerks.’ In blunt remarks rarely heard from an American president, he prodded the chief executives not to be ‘too careful.’—New York Times
Somehow, Donald Trump has decided that America has a ruler instead of a leader. So rather than trying to unify the country or remind us of the beliefs we share, the President of the United States went into his underground bunker and turned off the lights while our capitol burned around him.
Nobody home? Lights out at the White House. [image credit: Photo: @tencents77/Twitter]
But maybe there could be another way. In Genesee County Michigan, Sheriff Chris Swanson took off his helmet and put down his weapon to walk with protestors.
Genesee County Sheriff (Flint, Michigan) Chris Swanson put down his helmet and baton and asked protesters how he could help.
The protesters chanted “walk with us” so the Sheriff joined — and walked alongside the protesters in solidarity.
Leadership.🌎❤️ pic.twitter.com/Vs3941C2o8
— Rex Chapman🏇🏼 (@RexChapman) May 31, 2020
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In other cities and towns across the country, police officers are taking a knee in solidarity or at least acknowledgement of protestors.
So maybe Donald Trump is wrong. Maybe we don’t need to give up what it means to be Americans. Maybe we could still be the country with a Lady who raises a lamp against the darkness.
![Statue of Liberty at night [image credit: Guide TravelTourism http://guidetraveltourism.com/?attachment_id=2846]](https://barbtaub.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/the-statue-of-liberty-fun-facts.jpg?w=529)
Statue of Liberty at night
[image credit: Guide TravelTourism]
Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!” cries she
With silent lips. “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!
–Emma Lazarus, 1883
Barb Taub 
So well put together, Barb, around these unbelievable happenings.I myself am at a loss for words. Or maybe too many words of outrage and disbelief.
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Having just seen and heard Trump make his speech in the rose garden, your post made me cry. I’m afraid I’ve never heard of Genesee County before now, nor its sheriff – but I love him to bits for doing what he’s done. There has to be another way. Do you think there are more Chris Swansons to follow his lead?
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it is so hard to wrap my head around. just watched him a give a strongman military angry statement in the White House rose garden as law enforcement shot tear gas at peaceful protestors in front of the White House to clear them out.
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Don’t get me started… Just wanted to ask if you’ve seen the images of a line of white women, arm in arm, protecting the peaceful black protestors from the police.
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I had not seen the darkened White House image before. (I’m huddled at home avoiding the news when possible.) how stark and desolate of hope that picture is. And how it represents a country with out a true leader.
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Trump is wrong about EVERYTHING from start to finish.
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Well said, Barb.
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Nice work dear
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He is the problem, the people are the solution.
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I’ve had a hard time watching this. My daughter and I have agreed that if he is re-elected, we are leaving the country. I’ll be 72 by then and it will be worth it to get out of here. I have to stay and vote for kindness for all. You said this so eloquently. I’m on a rage about the stupidity in this country. Even so called intelligent people still think he’s a good idea. They can justify what the police did. I just can’t. I sure don’t want Pense either so we have to move for the entire removal until one party or the other comes up with honorable and honest people at the top. Good sense people. I pray every night that this nightmare ends.
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I understand your feelings. Alas, I saw it coming and left when I could. I wish you all the best.
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Excellent Synopsis. Trump is the face of the UGLY AMERICAN. Unfortunately, he is backed by many people who hold his views. That is what scares me.
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Excellent post, Barb. There were enough voices warning that Trump was following Hitler’s lead way back before he was elected – I hope these warnings will be heard before the USA becomes a totalitarian dictatorship. The inscription on the Statue of Liberty has long been a farce.
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Well said. There are so many good people in America, I truly believe things will turn around.
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The Lady in the Harbor, her torch raised high was a gracious gift from France. Trump wants to return it. As I now live in France, I can feel the pulse of my neighbors over this and many other issues. In 1912, the Titanic I, kept her lights on until shortly before she split herself in two and sank. The Titanic II may be able to keep her lights on toward the end. It is only a matter of time before Americans implore former allies to take them in as refugees…
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She wasn’t just a gift from France… French school children contributed their pennies to build her. For my whole life, she’s been a symbol of how we saw ourselves as Americans. I’m not sure I see her that way now.
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How true. Additionally, every city, town and even the smallest village has a war memorial here and those too were funded by the pennies raised by the children. As for your last line, for me it is a resounding no. I’m not happy with that, but it is the truth. I’ve hiked up to the crown, the torch was unstable and had been closed. I lived in NYC for six years and was well aware of Trump as he first slithered out from under his rock. I knew what he was and hoped that things would not go this far…
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Honestly, it feels more positive right now than it has in a long time, as if things really are about to change. That’s why the pressure has to continue and people of all colors need to be marching together (socially distanced, of course). (And, oddly, I think that Trump has been part of the catalyst that is bring others together. . . against him.)
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