PART SEVEN--- NO LONGER...HOLD MY TONGUE

PART SEVEN---NO LONGER…HOLD MY TONGUE 

“We can’t go on like this,” Jeff Daniels repeats the words of Atticus Finch in the Broadway Production of “To Kill A Mockingbird.” No truer words could be spoken than in America today. The American president stood in another country, with the eyes of the world looking on, and took sides with a USA adversary, the most murderous, vile, evil, dictator in modern history, and there is no outcry! No, we can’t go on like this. We are killing the mockingbird, and it is the very fiber of truth and decency that has been the stronghold of American democracy. It is the same fiber that has made America the greatest nation on the planet.

Donald Trump has put a stain on democracy and a stain on the White House that will take many layers of paint and many decades to cover. What has happened to Americans?  The American president calls a murderous dictator “A GREAT LEADER!” and he says he is “IN LOVE” with this assassin. Every American should be up in arms, but I hear no chorus of disapproval!  Where is the spine of the citizens that once upheld the eternal flame of the Lady in the Harbor?

If Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, or any other democrat, had made such remarks, the Republicans would have filed proceedings of impeachment against them before they could have set foot back on American soil. But yet, Donald Trump speaks the unspeakable and gets away with it.

“We have to heal this wound or we will never stop bleeding,” Atticus continues. There is no doubt that America is wounded, wounded by corrupt leadership, wounded by disrespect for each other, and wounded by fear -- fear at school -- fear at worship --- fear on the streets --- and the ultimate of all fears, fear of tomorrow.  But the deepest wound of all is the wound inflicted on the Middle Class perpetrated by the selfish Upper Class, who foolishly think they can wipe out a complete class of people. 

This president has added fuel to the flames of the economic battle between the “HAVES” and the “HAVE NOTS.” And if we are not careful both sides may lose. The social divide has weakened America creating the opportunity for an outside power to step in, and there are more than just one outside forces waiting for the right opportunity.   

  
It makes me sick to see Americans throw democracy under the bus for a wannabe dictator. There are dangers in failing to recognize the advantages of a democratic government. Democracy encourages freedom of speech, freedom of the press, and freedom of assembly. Every American should protect these freedoms with every fiber that is within us.  It chills me to think that these freedoms are being obstructed by the present administration.

If the majority of Americans are foolish enough to give up a democracy for a dictatorship it will be the biggest mistake Americans will ever make. It will also be one of the biggest mistakes made by any nation in the world. If Donald Trump wins the presidential election in 2020, American democracy is OVER.  Please, write this in your little, black, book, date it and sign my name.

At the present, America’s framework for democracy is as fragile as it has been since the Civil War. The Battle for the White House in 2020 will be the hardest fought political battle of our lifetime. The political divide will get much greater in the days leading up to November, 2020.  Americans have never experienced a political battle like the one that is coming, but we can only hope that the winner will possess the magical power that will put America back together again.