Wednesday, April 16, 2025

Trump's Scariest Move

       Trump's greedy and bumbling fingers are reaching into so many areas of our lives that, were I to dwell on them, I would live in a puddle of paralysis. Trump scares me in so many ways:
    That there will be no help from public health agencies when the next pandemic sweeps the country.
    That climate change will charge right ahead without any efforts on our part to mitigate its damage, including storms and fires, and then that FEMA won't be there to help in the aftermath.
    That something will come of the ridiculous and bullying boasts to take over Greenland and the Panama Canal and to change the name of the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America, of all the embarrassing ideas.
    That he compiles lists of words banned in government documents and websites. Words that can't be used?! "Woman," "diverse," "social justice," 'bipoc"—PEN America lists more than 250 words no longer considered acceptable by the Trump administration. 
    That cozying up to Russia and thumbing our nose at our allies will have disastrous international effects.
    That extraction will dominate in our national forests.
    That our precious National Parks, the pride of our country, will lose their sanctity and their carefully controlled use. (Already I have heard of interlopers misusing the land [poaching? defacing?] and, when confronted, answering with a shrug, "What are you going to do about it?")
    That science will be ignored.
    That the arts will languish.
    That dissenting voices are being squelched.
    That our children will miss out on the education they deserve and need.
    That the imposed tariffs will play havoc with the economy and shut down many small businesses of good people who are the very people I thought Trump meant to appeal to, and aren't they changing their minds now?

   It is scary to think of all this, but the scariest thing is what he has done to one person: Abrego Garcia. 
    If Trump can pluck a person out of his altogether normal American life and throw him out of the country, then laugh in the face of the law—it stabs fear into my heart.
    

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