There are times when, not only as an American but as a human being, I find myself confronted with the horrible truth that just because many of my own country’s people are patriotic doesn’t necessarily mean they’re humane, let alone profoundly so. To mind I bring Samuel Johnson’s time-honored quote: “Patriotism is the Last Refuge of a Scoundrel.”
Never has that been more relevant than now, when our Fuhrer — sorry, 45th President Donald Trump — acted unilaterally and without even consulting Congress’s advice (not that it would have helped at this point) to launch an attack via conventional weaponry on Syria. While many will feel justified of Trump’s approach, especially following the Syrian government and army’s use of chemical weaponry on helpless civilians in their own country, I say to those who said “Yes” to Trump’s maneuver — YOU SHOULD ALL BE ASHAMED OF YOURSELVES!
Trump was most definitely not justified in deciding that the only way to respond to Syria’s violence was with more violence, even as a warning message. While the Syrians' use of chemical weaponry on their own people was barbaric, our President’s response was no better and only reinforces the degenerate jingoism and xenophobia of Trump's regime which held and holds the vast majority of America’s population in constant terror. And with the immigration ban, internment lists and deportation raids still in effect from coast to coast, any Syrian refugees who came to America in the first place to find hope are now unwilling outcasts in a society that has allowed racism and xenophobia (among other things!) to run rampant, outsiders wrongly persecuted because they are not white or were born on American soil or are unjustifiably accused of being in league with terrorist groups.
And what is more - probably a number of innocent civilians who had nothing to do with the Syrian terrorizing campaign or were against it probably died as well, which means that by carrying out this attack, Trump was even more of a murderer than his supporters realized. It doesn’t help that, as Commander-in-Chief, Trump has control over the nuclear codes and is therefore wrongfully able to trigger foreign genocide on a national scale. Not only will the guilty ones perish — thousands, millions more of innocent people will be wiped out as well.
Are we really supposed to spend the next few years with a psychotic in the Oval Office whose practices have come to match Adolf Hitler as possibly one of the greatest mass murderers in history? Are we really to be afraid of the laws implemented by Trump and his cronies because to do so otherwise — in other words, BE HUMANE AND SHOW AID to foreigners along with other persecuted minorities — would get us arrested and marked on the FBI’s or CIA’s list? In an attempt to make America great again, have those who voted for Trump really stooped so low as to make themselves monsters to our country and the whole world?
We're better than that — regardless of who voted for who, we have an unavoidable and civilized responsibility both as Americans and as human beings, not to turn our guns on the countries of the world and cast out foreigners, but to hold the monsters within our own borders accountable, and welcome and give aid to those in need from other nations who are currently under attack and seek protection from danger.
We should send all forms of help — without the use of any weaponry, let alone that which causes mass destruction — overseas to shield refugees from the attacks and welcome them to America, not target any member of that country regardless of which side was guilty, while putting an end to Trump’s immigration ban and deportation raids for once and for all, and all his other policies. And if there are any people here in America who oppose this civilized policy, then they should be viewed as both unpatriotic and inhumane and guarded against. Only in love and aid, not hatred and terror, does America become stronger.
If you who have finished reading this are truly human, vote YES in the poll below - and together, let's start taking more drastic steps to get Trump removed from office along with his followers and peers. For any Americans who are truly human can’t allow themselves to show support for the criminal injustices that people like Trump make reality!