Somehow these all converged today.
My late dad was a Navy man, deployed in the Pacific. Post-war, the GI Bill let him fulfill the dream of college. He and mom both had fulfilling careers in the civil service, retired with pensions. He was proud to be part of the task force to implement Medicare in the 1960s. Patriotic, liberal minded, solid Democrat, believed in the promise of America.
Did any of you hear this story? When WW2 enemy soldiers were surrounded they gave themselves up to Americans. Americans would not torture or execute them summarily.
That was then. Now, America does indeed torture, imprison without trial in black sites and plans to continue doing it. The torture maven from Abu Ghraib runs the CIA. German and Italian combatants — who were fully engaged in killing Allies — were received with more decency and fairness than mothers and babies pleading for asylum at the US border.
About the Day of the Dead reference. When I’m working at home, I usually have something or other streaming absent-mindedly on the TV. Today, Netflix launched the Pixar animation ‘Coco’. The young Mexican protagonist Miguel visited the Land of the Dead to find the man he believed was his ancestor. Movie Miguel was treated with more love, respect and safety by spirits, than real world young Mexican boys are by the US government.
Three generations. That’s all it took to bring us to this point.
Somehow, I just started weeping and weeping. Shame and sorrow. And I heard myself blubbering out load to the spirits of my ancestors “I’m so sorry, We have become monsters.”