“The Division of America”

Quoting Eugene Robinson of the Washington Post, July 4, 2019:

“Standing beneath the majestic statue of Abraham Lincoln, occupying a space where great orators have stood, Trump looked and sounded quite small.”

“Trump declared, “We are one people chasing one dream and a magnificent destiny,” but that misses the point.  We are, in fact, a nation bound together not by blood but by our creeds, our institutions, our laws.  Trump treats laws like an inconvenience…”

Tom Nichols, Professor of the Naval War College and former Republican Senate Aide said this:

“Trump tried to make Independence Day all about him.  He ended up looking small.”  [The July 4^th celebration] was a partisan exercise for an insecure president, who thirsts for legitimacy as a military hero.”  The New York Daily News, July 5, 2019

These are not my words, but they certainly express my sentiments regarding the bloated, politicized July 4^th celebration.  Robbing $2.5 million from the National Park service to pay for this political extravaganza worsens the blighted nature of this celebration.  Whatever this President touches turns to poison.  He destroys the sacred, and offends the very military he tries to honor and so divides this nation.  What in the past was a national celebration which united us all together has become another forced political event for a president desperately seeking legitimacy and re-election.  His speech was dishonorable, the event is a blight upon all America and the celebration with tanks and planes reduces the greatest nation on earth with the greatest military to a two bit junta flaunting its military power. This spectacle portrays something which de legitimizes the July 4^th celebration of our independence, and produces another aberration of our common American life.  Trump represents something which I hope we never become and for that reason I disavow this celebration.

A really great nation does not need to advertise its military power.  Everyone already knows we have it. Trump hijacked a sacred ceremony for his political benefit.  In so doing he cheapened himself and all who participated in it.  I thank God I did not watch it, not did I celebrate with him.   I place myself on the outside of this President.  I celebrate today, on the day after the 4^th of July not my blood or race, but my nation, a diverse nation of peoples from all corners of this planet, bound together by the creed of the Declaration of Independence, the US Constitution and the Gettysburg address.  Even Lincoln’s statue cannot legitimize this illegitimate President.  His speech will serve future generations as instructive of what not to say and what not to do on this sacred occasion.

I stand today on the side of those persons who were not to be found at this celebration, the Hispanics, the African Americans, and all those other people of color from every land and nation across this earth.  Where are my brothers the Chinese, my sisters from India and Pakistan?  Where are the Haitians, the Nigerians and the Sudanese?  Where is the family of the little girl who died trying to cross the Rio Grande to gain a new life in America?  Where are the children locked in cages on the borders of our country, who don’t even have a clean toilet or sink to use?  Where are their parents who are seeking to find their children?  Is this how we “make America great again?”

I stand today and salute all Americans citizens and non-citizens who have come to this country in search of freedom and the hope and dream of a better life for themselves and their families.  I stand today with those who flee oppression, gang violence, military violence, poverty, rape and war.  I stand today with all those who love freedom and democracy as much as I do, who still remember how to recite the Gettysburg address.  I stand with those who judge others not by the color of their skin, nor by their religious faith, but by the goodness of their hearts and the compassion shown for their fellow human beings, who together hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men, women and children are created equal by their Creator and are endowed by virtue of their creation and birth by certain inalienable rights, among these life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.  This is what I celebrate today on the day after the 4^th of July.  I will no longer celebrate on the original day, as it has been poisoned by this man called Trump.  But I can celebrate on the day after the 4^th of July as it is then I can imagine a world and country in which this man is no more among us!  As the Psalmist David declares, “O Lord, let another take his place!”

May Trump find his place in a glitzy retirement home, where he can watch Fox News on a giant screen TV and pontificate about his days as President, while the rest of us get on with the real world of living without him!  This is my dream for the renewal of this nation.  I shall call this new time “the day after the 4^th of July!”

On that great day, I shall rejoice in my God and Lord Jesus Christ and be glad once more that the evil poison of this man’s influence has finally been purged from us, and we will no longer need to avoid the TV news, so that we do not have a headache from listening to someone who knows so little speak as if he were someone who knew so much.  That will be a great day indeed!  It will be a great and glorious day for us all!

Bill Wilson, MD servant of God by God’s gracious mercies in Jesus Christ our Lord.

“O Lord Jesus Christ and God our Heavenly Father, we thank you that you have made us a great nation, whose greatness will never be found in our military might or any “manifest destiny.”  But our greatness will always be found in our service and our compassion to others, as we welcome strangers and friends into our midst from other lands and nations, so that we may together realize our common dreams for life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.  Supporting one another in these common dreams will be the means and the way of finding our true destiny, not in our race, our creed, or our religion but in our common life together, as we give glory to our God who does all things well and grants us hope, peace and joy for the future of all humanity, one world through one God, one Jesus Christ our Lord who died on the cross of Calvary that all men, women and children throughout this whole earth might be saved and live in Him.  His is our only true destiny, his is our only salvation; in him is the only glory we cherish or will ever seek for us all!” “Amen and Amen.”