Donald Trump and maga Republicans all directly related to immigrants but now they impose cruel deportations as punishment for innocent people

What will you do when they come for you?

Regarding “Closed immigration cases are being resurrected under Trump,” (July 22): I’m in awe — and deeply disturbed — by the growing number of people being deported from the so-called land of the free and home of the brave. (As the Trump administration intensifies its efforts to deport a record number of immigrants, Houston immigration lawyers are seeing an increase in the government’s efforts to resurrect cases that have been placed on hold, sometimes for several years. The legal maneuver to add an old case to a current docket isn’t new. But attorneys now think it’ll become commonplace as the Trump administration moves forward with its plans for mass deportations.)

The Statue of Liberty still stands in New York Harbor, holding her torch high as a beacon of freedom, democracy and hope. She was gifted as a symbol of friendship, built to welcome immigrants seeking a better life.

(Paul Pirela, a Houston immigration lawyer, said the government used to resurrect old immigration cases once or twice a year. He had one, in 2023, maybe two. Now, “it's probably, I think, four or five in the last two weeks,” he said.)

The Statue of Libery's torch represents enlightenment, the crown’s seven rays are thought to represent the seven continents and seven seas and the broken chains at her feet represent the end of tyranny and oppression. Her very foundation, in part, honors the abolition of slavery after the Civil War.

Many Americans still believe deportation is just about people from Mexico or Central America, but look again. Immigrants from Guatemala, India, China, Iran and Russia — people from every corner of the globe — are being rounded up.

So, to every immigrant, to every person of conscience, I ask:

• What will you do when it’s your turn?
• What will you do when you’re the one being harassed, threatened, jailed or cast out?

It’s time — past time — to break the cycle of hate and stand together.

Donald Trump made it clear: He has no love for immigrants in America.

This is not just about politics. It’s about justice, freedom and humanity.

What kind of nation are we becoming❓😔😞😠😯😥 

And will we finally stand together to reclaim the promise that Lady Liberty was meant to hold?

From J.L. Leonard, in Houston, Texas

Bonjour et aurevoir Raphaël Glucksmann: A French scientist is now a victim of Trumpzism

Echo opinion published in the Houston Chronicle by Robert Zaretsky:

A funny thing happened to a French researcher apparently on his way to the Woodlands, the site of last week’s Lunar and Planetary Science Conference. Upon arriving at George Bush Intercontinental Airport, the scientist was stopped at immigration and customs where officials went through not just his toiletries but his work computer and personal phone. 

Mais oui, their suspicions were founded: there were messages on the sudden plight of the American scientific community “that express hatred towards Trump and can be qualified as terrorism,” according to a source quoted by the French news source Le Monde.

The suspected, though now disarmed, terrorist was swept onto the next flight back to Paris. We can breathe more easily…or can we?

The Lunar and Planetary Science Conference website announced this meeting as the “defining event in planetary research, bringing together a diverse group of international experts in a truly collaborative environment.” But to paraphrase Nayib Bukele, the Salvadoran president, “Oopsie…it’s too late to edit that line.” Somehow, the conference organizers had not gotten the message that it is politically toxic to use the word “diverse.” Moreover, their claim was factually wrong: diversity for scientists in the next four years will exclude scientists mad enough to criticize the Trump administration’s catastrophic attack on their fields of research.

Ironically, this incident explains why this conference is a “defining event.” Many observers have compared the fear and dread now stirred by the dogs of DOGE (Department of Government Efficiency) to the fear and dread spurred 75 years ago by the determined red-hunters of HUAC e Un-American Activities Committee). Whereas Senator Joseph McCarthy terrifi(Housed scientists and academics with the phrase “I have here in my hand a list,” so too does Elon Musk with either lists of 360-year-old Americans still receiving Social Security checks or lists of agencies he has happily shuttered (and sometimes reopens when he learns — oopsie! — they are tasked with preventing diseases like Ebola).

In other ways, this moment in our history more closely resembles the 1930s, and 1940s, in Stalinist Russia, when a cartoonish version of Marxism replaced hard-nosed empiricism, forcing scientists to acquiesce to utterly bogus theories like Lysenkoism (denying the existance of genetics), which trashed the science of genetics, or the pseudo-science of Lamarckism (a debunked theory of evolution proposed by Jean-Baptiste Lamarck, suggesting that organisms can pass on traits acquired during their lifetime to their offspring, which is now largely considered incorrect). 

The consequences of this willed obscurantism were baleful not just for the lives of Russian scientists, but also for the future of scientific research in Russia.

But, we need not look as far as Russia for insights into what the Trump Administration’s actions will mean, not just for the pursuit of knowledge, but for liberty and equality. Leave it to a citizen of our sister republic, France, to remind us about the significance of our Statue of Liberty. A few days ago, the young and influential French politician, Raphaël Glucksmann, addressed recent events in America. In his speech, he declared “We say to those Americans who now side with tyrants and to those Americans who fire researchers who insist on the freedom of scientific study (my italics), give us back the Statue of Liberty. We gave her to you as a gift, but it seems you now scorn her. And so, let her find a home, chez nous.”

A clip of Glucksmann’s speech caught fire 🔥 on social platforms, with plumes of smoke reaching as far as the White House. A Fox News reporter asked the press secretary, ex-Fox intern Karoline Leavitt, if the administration plans to return the statue. Expecting this softball, Leavitt swung mightily: “Absolutely not, and my advice to that unnamed, low-level French politician would be to remind them that it’s only because of the United States of America that the French are not speaking German right now.”

(Maine Writer note:  Check out my Substack blog in response to the stupidity in Leavitt's idiotic statement link here.)

A few hours later, Glucksmann tweeted a reply. He fully and gratefully acknowledged that thousands of Americans had given their lives to help the French defeat Nazi Germany. 

But, he added a crucial proviso — namely, that they had done so on behalf of a certain idea of freedom, one that was launched by the French Revolution, which was inspired in part by our own revolution little more than a decade earlier.

Et, le voilà, here we are. While our new government will not return the Statue of Liberty, they have just returned a French scientist to France. It is, of course, impossible not to think of Glucksmann’s astonishment that the Trump administration is firing men and women engaged in scientific research. But it is also impossible not to be astonished that the beacon’s light held aloft by the “Mother of Exiles” rather than “glowing world-wide welcome,” may well soon be extinguished.

Robert Zaretsky teaches courses in modern French and European history at the University of Houston.

Editor's note: A statement from the Department of Homeland Security, published Friday by the New York Times, claims that the researcher "was in possession of confidential information on his electronic device from Los Alamos National Laboratory — in violation of a nondisclosure agreement — something he admitted to taking without permission and attempted to conceal." However, the French minister for higher education repeated that the researcher was targeted for his opinions about Trump.

President Joe Biden Inaugural Address January 20, 2021

THE PRESIDENT Joseph Biden inauguration: 

"The work and prayers of centuries have brought us to this day"

Echo from the White House:

Chief Justice Roberts, Vice President Harris, Speaker Pelosi, Leader Schumer, Leader McConnell, Vice President Pence, distinguished guests, and my fellow Americans.

This is America’s day. This is democracy’s day. A day of history and hope. Of renewal and resolve.

Through a crucible for the ages America has been tested anew and America has risen to the challenge.

Today, we celebrate the triumph not of a candidate, but of a cause, the cause of democracy.

The will of the people has been heard and the will of the people has been heeded.

We have learned again that democracy is precious.

Democracy is fragile.  And, at this hour, my friends, (our) democracy prevailed.

So now, on this hallowed ground where just days ago violence sought to shake this Capitol’s very foundation, we come together as one nation, under God, indivisible, to carry out the peaceful transfer of power as we have for more than two centuries.

We look ahead in our uniquely American way – restless, bold, optimistic – and set our sights on the nation we know we can be and we must be.

I thank my predecessors of both parties for their presence here.

I thank them from the bottom of my heart.

You know the resilience of our Constitution and the strength of our nation.

As does President Carter, who I spoke to last night but who cannot be with us today, but whom we salute for his lifetime of service.

I have just taken the sacred oath each of these patriots took — an oath first sworn by George Washington.

But the American story depends not on any one of us, not on some of us, but on all of us.

On “We the People” who seek a more perfect Union.

This is a great nation and we are a good people.

Over the centuries through storm and strife, in peace and in war, we have come so far. But we still have far to go.

We will press forward with speed and urgency, for we have much to do in this winter of peril and possibility.

Much to repair. Much to restore. Much to heal. Much to build.

And much to gain.

Few periods in our nation’s history have been more challenging or difficult than the one we’re in now.

A once-in-a-century virus silently stalks the country.

It’s taken as many lives in one year as America lost in all of World War II.

Millions of jobs have been lost.

Hundreds of thousands of businesses closed.

A cry for racial justice some 400 years in the making moves us. The dream of justice for all will be deferred no longer.

A cry for survival comes from the planet itself. A cry that can’t be any more desperate or any more clear.

And now, a rise in political extremism, white supremacy, domestic terrorism that we must confront and we will defeat.

To overcome these challenges – to restore the soul and to secure the future of America – requires more than words.

It requires that most elusive of things in a democracy:

Unity.

Unity.

In another January in Washington, on New Year’s Day 1863, Abraham Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation.

When he put pen to paper, the President said, “If my name ever goes down into history it will be for this act and my whole soul is in it.”

My whole soul is in it.

Today, on this January day, my whole soul is in this:

Bringing America together.

Uniting our people.

And uniting our nation.

I ask every American to join me in this cause.

Uniting to fight the common foes we face:

Anger, resentment, hatred.

Extremism, lawlessness, violence.

Disease, joblessness, hopelessness.

With unity we can do great things. Important things.

We can right wrongs. We can put people to work in good jobs.

We can teach our children in safe schools.
We can overcome this deadly virus.
We can reward work, rebuild the middle class, and make health care
secure for all.
We can deliver racial justice.

We can make America, once again, the leading force for good in the world.

I know speaking of unity can sound to some like a foolish fantasy.

I know the forces that divide us are deep and they are real.

But I also know they are not new.

Our history has been a constant struggle between the American ideal that we are all created equal and the harsh, ugly reality that racism, nativism, fear, and demonization have long torn us apart.

The battle is perennial.  Victory is never assured.

Through the Civil War, the Great Depression, World War, 9/11, through struggle, sacrifice, and setbacks, our “better angels” have always prevailed.

In each of these moments, enough of us came together to carry all of us forward.

And, we can do so now.
History, faith, and reason show the way, the way of unity.

We can see each other not as adversaries but as neighbors.

We can treat each other with dignity and respect.

We can join forces, stop the shouting, and lower the temperature.

For without unity, there is no peace, only bitterness and fury.

No progress, only exhausting outrage. No nation, only a state of chaos.

This is our historic moment of crisis and challenge, and unity is the path forward.

Statue of Liberty in New York Harbor 

And, we must meet this moment as the United States of America.

If we do that, I guarantee you, we will not fail.

We have never, ever, ever failed in America when we have acted together.

And so today, at this time and in this place, let us start afresh.

All of us.  Let us listen to one another.

Hear one another. See one another. Show respect to one another.

Politics need not be a raging fire destroying everything in its path.

Every disagreement doesn’t have to be a cause for total war.

And, we must reject a culture in which facts themselves are manipulated and even manufactured.

My fellow Americans, we have to be different than this.

America has to be better than this.

And, I believe America is better than this.

Just look around.

Here we stand, in the shadow of a Capitol dome that was completed amid the Civil War, when the Union itself hung in the balance.

Yet we endured and we prevailed.

Here we stand looking out to the great Mall where Dr. King spoke of his dream.

Here we stand, where 108 years ago at another inaugural, thousands of protestors tried to block brave women from marching for the right to vote.

Today, we mark the swearing-in of the first woman in American history elected to national office – Vice President Kamala Harris.

Don’t tell me things can’t change.

Here we stand across the Potomac from Arlington National Cemetery, where heroes who gave the last full measure of devotion rest in eternal peace.

And here we stand, just days after a riotous mob thought they could use violence to silence the will of the people, to stop the work of our democracy, and to drive us from this sacred ground.

That did not happen.

It will never happen. Not today. Not tomorrow. Not ever.

To all those who supported our campaign I am humbled by the faith you have placed in us.

To all those who did not support us, let me say this: Hear me out as we move forward. Take a measure of me and my heart.

And if you still disagree, so be it.

That’s democracy. That’s America. The right to dissent peaceably, within the guardrails of our Republic, is perhaps our nation’s greatest strength.

Yet hear me clearly: Disagreement must not lead to disunion.

And I pledge this to you: I will be a President for all Americans.

I will fight as hard for those who did not support me as for those who did.

Many centuries ago, Saint Augustine, a saint of my church, wrote that a people was a multitude defined by the common objects of their love.

What are the common objects we love that define us as Americans?

I think I know. Opportunity. Security. Liberty. Dignity. Respect.

Honor!

And, yes, the truth.

Recent weeks and months have taught us a painful lesson.

There is truth and there are lies.

Lies told for power and for profit.

And each of us has a duty and responsibility, as citizens, as Americans, and especially as leaders – leaders who have pledged to honor our Constitution and protect our nation — to defend the truth and to defeat the lies.

I understand that many Americans view the future with some fear and trepidation.

I understand they worry about their jobs, about taking care of their families, about what comes next.

I get it.

But the answer is not to turn inward, to retreat into competing factions, distrusting those who don’t look like you do, or worship the way you do, or don’t get their news from the same sources you do.

We must end this uncivil war that pits red against blue, rural versus urban, conservative versus liberal.

We can do this if we open our souls instead of hardening our hearts.

If we show a little tolerance and humility.

If we’re willing to stand in the other person’s shoes just for a moment.  Because, here is the thing about life: There is no accounting for what fate will deal you. 

There are some days when we need a hand.

There are other days when we’re called on to lend one.

That is how we must be with one another.

And, if we are this way, our country will be stronger, more prosperous, more ready for the future.

My fellow Americans, in the work ahead of us, we will need each other.

We will need all our strength to persevere through this dark winter.

We are entering what may well be the toughest and deadliest period of the virus.

We must set aside the politics and finally face this pandemic as one nation.

I promise you this: as the Bible says weeping may endure for a night but joy cometh in the morning.

We will get through this, together

The world is watching today.

So here is my message to those beyond our borders: America has been tested and we have come out stronger for it.

We will repair our alliances and engage with the world once again.

Not to meet yesterday’s challenges, but today’s and tomorrow’s.

We will lead not merely by the example of our power but by the power of our example.

We will be a strong and trusted partner for peace, progress, and security.

We have been through so much in this nation.

And, in my first act as President, I would like to ask you to join me in a moment of silent prayer to remember all those we lost this past year to the pandemic.

To those 400,000 fellow Americans – mothers and fathers, husbands and wives, sons and daughters, friends, neighbors, and co-workers.

We will honor them by becoming the people and nation we know we can and should be.

Let us say a silent prayer for those who lost their lives, for those they left behind, and for our country.

Amen.

This is time for testing. We face an attack on democracy and truth.

A raging virus. Growing inequity. The sting of systemic racism.

A climate in crisis.

America’s role in the world.

Any one of these would be enough to challenge us in profound ways.

But the fact is we face them all at once, presenting this nation with the gravest of responsibilities.

Now we must step up.  All of us!

It is a time for boldness, for there is so much to do.

And, this is certain.

We will be judged, you and I, for how we resolve the cascading crises of our era.

Will we rise to the occasion?

Will we master this rare and difficult hour?

Will we meet our obligations and pass along a new and better world for our children?

I believe we must and I believe we will.

And when we do, we will write the next chapter in the American story.

It’s a story that might sound something like a song that means a lot to me.

It’s called “American Anthem” and there is one verse stands out for me:

“The work and prayers
of centuries have brought us to this day
What shall be our legacy?
What will our children say?…
Let me know in my heart
When my days are through
America
America
I gave my best to you.”

Let us add our own work and prayers to the unfolding story of our nation.

If we do this then when our days are through our children and our children’s children will say of us they gave their best.

They did their duty.

They healed a broken land.

My fellow Americans, I close today where I began, with a sacred oath.

Before God and all of you I give you my word.

I will always level with you.

I will defend the Constitution.

I will defend our democracy.

I will defend America.

I will give my all in your service thinking not of power, but of possibilities.

Not of personal interest, but of the public good.

And together, we shall write an American story of hope, not fear.

Of unity, not division.  Of light, not darkness.

An American story of decency and dignity.

Of love and of healing.  Of greatness and of goodness.

May this be the story that guides us.

The story that inspires us.

The story that tells ages yet to come that we answered the call of history.

We met the moment.

That democracy and hope, truth and justice, did not die on our watch but thrived.

That our America secured liberty at home and stood once again as a beacon to the world.

That is what we owe our forebearers, one another, and generations to follow.

So, with purpose and resolve we turn to the tasks of our time.

Sustained by faith.  Driven by conviction.

And, devoted to one another and to this country we love with all our hearts.

May God bless America and may God protect our troops.

Thank you, America.

Support for Afghan refugees must be a priority

By Hayes Brown, MSNBC Opinion Columnist

My family lived in Subic Bay, Philippines on April 30, 1975, when Saigon fell. We are definitely in a classic déjà vu state of mind!

Essay published in the History News Network and MSNBC news by Hayes Brown, opinion columnist.  

The fall of Saigon was followed by Congress approving over $450 million for refugee resettlement. Yes, it was the right think to do.

We should focus on what happened next, after the fall of Saigon in 1975 — Congress’ nearly immediate approval of a program to take in and provide for Vietnamese refugees.

Check this site here for information about how to help.

Urgent evacuations are underway in Afghanistan following the Taliban takeover. 

The rapid fall of Kabul to the Taliban drew immediate comparisons to the scene over 40 years ago, when Saigon was captured in the last days of the Vietnam War. The comparison was only amplified as images of Afghans desperately clinging to U.S. planes Monday went viral.

Afghan children

For now, let’s set aside President Joe Biden’s promise that we wouldn’t see these wrenching scenes, that this time things would be different. Instead, we should focus on what happened next after the fall of Saigon in 1975 — Congress’ nearly immediate approval of a program to take in and provide for Vietnamese refugees.

By April 1975, it was becoming clear to the U.S. that the South Vietnamese government wouldn’t last long against a North Vietnamese assault. 

By then, President Gerald Ford’s administration was lobbying Congress for assistance to get remaining Americans out of the country, as well as Vietnamese allies whose lives would be at risk should the communists capture them. In a preview of the Biden administration’s rhetoric over the last few months, the Ford White House was hesitant to sound the alarm too loudly for fear of demoralizing the South Vietnamese in the fight ahead.

In a meeting with the Senate Foreign Relations Committee at the White House on April 14, Ford’s request was met with skepticism. Most were concerned with Ford’s plan linking the evacuation plans with a request for over $700 million in military aid to the South Vietnamese government. The administration argued that the money would help stabilize the country enough to safely retrieve the evacuees.

Others, though, were more concerned with the idea of bringing the Vietnamese to America — one senator in attendance even suggested shipping them off to Borneo. Ford, to his credit, responded to that suggestion with an insistence that the U.S. needed to take them in:

“Let me comment on where they would go: We opened our door to the Hungarians. I am not saying the situation is identical, but our tradition is to welcome the oppressed. I don't think these people should be treated any differently from any other people — the Hungarians, Cubans, Jews from the Soviet Union.“

But Congress wasn’t having it — at least not with the possibility of U.S. forces’ fighting the North Vietnamese again. The day after the fall of Saigon, the House voted to reject the final version of the Vietnam Humanitarian Assistance and Evacuation Act, a bill that would have provided $150 million for evacuation plans and given Ford the green light to use military force to protect American evacuees. The Vietnam Contingency Act, which had passed the Senate weeks earlier, never made it to the House floor for a vote.

Less than a month later, though, Congress did pass the Indochina Migration and Refugee Assistance Act. The law provided over $450 million to support the assimilation of eventually 130,000 South Vietnamese refugees who had been evacuated. (That works out to over $2.3 billion in 2021 dollars.) These refugees were originally taken to Guam before being granted “parole” by the attorney general to enter the U.S. mainland legally. (The process for refugee immigration shifted to the system we know today under the Refugee Act of 1980.)

As America debates whether to accept the Afghans wanting to flee the Taliban’s renewed rule, it’s worth noting that the 1975, refugee law wasn’t popular. The images of Vietnamese people swarming helicopters did little to soften the hearts of Americans. The New York Times was blunt in explaining most Americans’ reluctance to accept Vietnamese refugees:

Some of those hostile to the newcomers seem to be just weary of the whole long American involvement in things Vietnamese and eager to shut the door on the unhappy past. Others voice fears of epidemics of Asian diseases.

A few, however irrationally, see those fleeing Communism as a Communist threat. Some see the refugees as just the opposite — a possible nucleus of right‐wing strength. But the vast majority of those opposed to the resettlement express concern about the economic impact at a time when the country already has an unemployment rate of 8.7 percent.

That apathy was clearly seen in a Gallup poll released in May 1975, which found that a majority of Americans — 54 percent — opposed South Vietnamese refugees’ coming to the States. In contrast, only 36 percent supported the idea. Four years later, in 1979, 62 percent of Americans disapproved of Carter’s plan to increase the number of refugees coming from Indochina.

The bill still passed, though, and America kept accepting Vietnamese refugees — not because it was popular or because it would win votes, but because it was the right thing to do. The Senate, a few weeks before the Vietnam Migration and Refugee Assistance Act went into effect, had shown its willingness to go against public sentiment when it overwhelmingly passed a resolution that reaffirmed “that the Statue of Liberty is, as Emma Lazarus called her, the Mother of Exiles” and welcomed the refugees from Cambodia and Vietnam.

Today, millions of Afghans have been spread out across Central Asia for decades now. In recent years, Afghans have been encouraged to repatriate back to their home country under the promise of a brighter tomorrow. That time seems to be at an end, and the scenes from the Kabul airport show that the exodus from the country is likely only beginning.

Many political allies and foes alike are painting Biden’s decision to withdraw from Afghanistan as a betrayal of Afghans who have worked so hard to build their country up and now face retribution from the Taliban. In that light, it’s imperative that Congress take the next step and move forward in accepting more Afghan refugees into this country. 

Indeed, doing so, is the most honorable way to protect yet another group of people whose lives have been inextricably tied to the whims of the U.S.

Bookend reading 101 to combat white supremacists

MaineWriter opinion:

Evangelicals are often seen carrying their Bibles with them wherever they happen to go because they believe in a literal interpretation of all Scriptures. Nevertheless, in today's American society, those very same Bible carrying believers obviously overlook several key scriptures about how to combat the growing evils of ethnic discrimination, white supremacists, racism and fear of immigrants. For those who want to find some semblance of humanity in this cauldron of fear, stoked by the evils that accompany the Donald Trump's practices of abandoning leadership in favor of political advantage, here are MaineWriter's references: 

Biblical Scriptures  include many statements about welcoming strangers. Two of the most often quoted from the New Testament and from the Old Testament:

• Matthew 25:35 For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me
• Hebrews 13:2 Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for thereby some have entertained angels unawares.

Scripture notwithstanding, the enlightened opponents of white supremacist discrimination and anti-immigration zealotry can keep two contemporary American classics close to their reading tables:

To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee can even be a source of comfort for people (like me) who just need to be reminded that there is humanity even in the darkest of situations whereby racism creates mob rule.  Let's me honest, Donald Trump's racist rhetoric has created a cult following of people who soak up nearly everything he says. Harper Lee's noble character, Atticus Finch, symbolizes enlightenment in the face of racism in a small Southern town.  Actor Gregory Peck brought Atticus Finch to life in his Oscar winning performance in the movie made from Lee's book.

To Kill a Mockingbird is a novel by Harper Lee published in 1960. It was immediately successful, winning the Pulitzer Prize, and has become a classic of modern American literature.

And the second "bookend" reading is the play "Driving Miss Daisy" by Alfred Uhry.  This story transcends time. In my opinion, it's a "real time" time-travel play where racism is juxtaposed alongside antisemitism.   

Driving Miss Daisy is a play by American playwright Alfred Uhry, about the relationship of an elderly white Southern Jewish woman, Daisy Werthan, and her African-American chauffeur, Hoke Coleburn, from 1948 to 1973.

Of course, the most visually compelling argument against right wing racism, discrimination, anti-immigration and white supremacists is our American iconic tribute to immigrants. It's the inscription by Emma Lazarus: Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, The wretched refuse of your teeming shore. Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed to me, I lift my lamp beside the golden door! It's inscribed on The Statue of Liberty-Ellis Island Foundation, Inc.

Thoughtful Americans can put the classic novel To Kill a Mockingbird and the timeless play Driving Miss Daisy into a tote bag where The Statue of Liberty is the featured image. Keep those readings alongside a Bible. In so doing, you'll be set to find solace when trying to stand up for humanitarian values while trying to maintain sanity in the face of the evil white supremacists.

Immgiration was once a beacon of hope - Republicans snuffed the luster

America's future has lost its shining luster ~ echo opinion from The Baltimore Sun

What happened to the shining emotions and the optimism about being an American? We're now the "ugly American" we thought had been re-invented decades ago, but the Trumpists have re-created a selfish and tarnished image of our national pride.

Will America remain a beacon of freedom and opportunity in the world?

Statue of Liberty 

Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, The wretched refuse of your teeming shore. Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed to me, I lift my lamp beside the golden door! The Statue of Liberty-Ellis Island Foundation, Inc.

With the Congress in disarray under an erratic and chaotic president who deeply divides the country, and with its two major parties at loggerheads over immigration law, American politics may have hit a new low of pessimism, bitterness and despair.
Should upwards of a million "Dreamers" be deported because they were brought to this country as children by their undocumented immigrant parents? And at the same time, should that wall across our southern border be built at a cost of $18 billion to keep out millions more illegal Mexicans and others from Central America?

What about the melting-pot that supposedly made America great before Donald Trump got the (plagiaristic)  idea of making it greater? 

Moreover, Lady Liberty stands at the symbolic gate in New York Harbor still raising her torch as American politicians fight over continuing her relevance.

Trump managed to sum up the argument with his gutter slander of Haiti and others in Africa as "shithole countries" whose minions still hope to come here. 

Frankly, Trump's words enraged not only American racial and ethnic minorities, but also millions abroad. This nation's admired reputation as a welcoming haven to all seeking a better and more peaceful life was soiled by Mr. Trump's ugly and thoughtless slur.

In another of his self-aggrandizing boasts, he continues to insist not only that the border wall will be built to keep "raping" Mexicans out, but he will "make them pay for it," though perhaps not directly. His White House chief of staff, John F. Kelly, suggested to members of Congress the other day that Mexico will somehow be obliged to ante up, one way or another.

What the president accomplished with his demeaning identification of unwanted immigrants was to make clear that the basis of his rejection was racial, refuting his own preposterous contention to reporters that he is "the least racist person you've ever interviewed."

This is a country whose citizens pride themselves in being part of an open society of immigrants enriching itself through its racial and ethnic diversity. Mr. Trump's latest remarks suggest he simply does not understand or realize what in America's origins made her great, and has kept her so since the first Europeans arrived here more than five centuries ago.

As Trump embarks on his second year in the Oval Office, he boasts of his solitary legislative achievement, the highly controversial tax reform bill. But it and other words and actions have stirred deep apprehension over the quality of his leadership, and indeed over his fitness to hold the office at all.

He made repeated efforts to persuade his countrymen and women that there has not been, and is not, any "collusion" between himself, his family or his presidential campaign or presidency and the Russians. Yet the investigation of Special Counsel Robert Mueller into possible involvement in the meddling in the 2016 election goes on.

Despite hopeful expectations within the Trump political circle that the inquiry will soon be completed, it continues methodically as more Trump campaign and administration figures are summoned to testify, either voluntarily or under subpoena with possible penalty of perjury for lying.

Not only the Mueller investigation but also similar inquiries of House and Senate Intelligence Committees are continuing to cast shadows of suspicion over the president, his 2016 campaign and his administration. Each group is generally seen as looking for evidence of obstruction of justice or lesser behavior that could imperil Mr. Trump's presidency in the year or years ahead.

It could well be his firing of FBI Director James Comey for declining to let former Trump national security adviser Michael Flynn off the hook in prosecution for lying about his involvement with the Russians, about which Mr. Flynn has already pleaded guilty.

More recently, speculation has grown over alleged money laundering in the campaign or for personal gain by former campaign manager Paul Manafort and a chief aide, to which they have pleaded not guilty.

Of greater importance, however, may be the damage inflicted by the whole matter on America's image and reputation as a beacon to the rest of the world and as a place for those seeking refuge, regardless of race or religious creed.

Jules Witcover is a syndicated columnist and former long-time writer for The Baltimore Sun. His latest book is "The American Vice Presidency: From Irrelevance to Power" (Smithsonian Books). His email is juleswitcover@comcast.net.

In my opinion ~ Maine Writer:  Republicans are snuffing out the brilliant beacon of the American Dream because they prefer to focus on selfishness, bigotry and greed.  

George Washington's papers- French and the American Revolution

"..'an increased focus on Franco-American relations will emphasize how the “United States was not born alone'.”

George Washington. Sculpted by Jean-Antoine Houdon, 1785

George Washington left important correspondance to explain America's special relationship with France. His papers are going to academics, thanks to "The Washington Papers".

The Washington Papers and the Florence Gould Foundation Embark on a Partnership to Explore Early Franco-American Relations

One of my concerns about the anti immigration movement led by the right wing Republicans is their disregard for how all of us became American citizens. We're US citizens today because of the American Revolution, where the French allied with the colonial army, led by General Washington.

Americans are independent today because the French helped General Washington in his darkest hours of the Revolutionary War. This centuries of Franco-American friendship can't be forgotten. 

As a matter of fact, the enduring symbol of Franco-American friendship is the magnificent Statue of Liberty, a beacon of freedom and a gift to the US from the French, located in New York Harbor.  George Washington and America's colonial leaders enjoyed a special friendship with the French.  

Interesting Franco-American history is available now from the "Washington Papers", based on the communications and experiences of President (and General) George Washington (1732-1799).

George Washington was a leader of the Continental Army in the American Revolution, and was the first to become U.S. president.

France and the United States have a long tradition of friendship, forged in the course of two great 18th-century revolutions and tempered in the flames of two global wars in the 20th century. 

The Washington Papers project stands poised to record the origins of the Franco-American alliance with the editing and publication of the final 16 volumes of the Revolutionary War Series, covering the years from 1780 to 1783. 

These volumes will chronicle Rochambeau’s landing with a French expeditionary army in North America in the autumn of 1780; his strategic planning with Washington in the winter of 1780-1781; the Yorktown campaign of the summer and autumn of 1781; and finally, the protracted negotiations that led to the Treaty of Paris in 1783.

The Washington Papers project is proud to announce a major new partnership with the Florence Gould Foundation, ensuring that these documents chronicling the most important period in the history of Franco-American relations are edited and published in time for the project’s completion in 2024. 

With the Gould Foundation’s major and ongoing financial support, the Washington Papers will hire an expert scholar whose time will be fully devoted to editing these documents as well as carrying on important research in French archives.

To better understand the importance of such research to current knowledge of the period, Washington Papers Communications Assistant Katie Lebert spoke with Julia Osman, a history professor at Mississippi State University with expertise in 17th– and 18th-century French military history and author of Citizen Soldiers and the Key to the Bastille.

Asked about the significance of our research into Franco-American relations at this moment in history, Osman points out that it would “add more color to the understanding of the American revolution” and underscore two of its fundamental insights.

First, she outlines how the research would increase and encourage recognition of the vital support France provided during the American Revolution. Through assistance from French volunteers like the Marquis de Lafayette and the provision of troops, uniforms and supplies, the French not only legitimated the American cause but also elevated its international recognition.

That international recognition, in turn, underlines the American Revolution’s importance in the global context. Osman adds that as part of the larger European colonial story, the Revolution constitutes a notable chapter in the contemporary shift in understanding citizenship and governance.

With George Washington serving as a lens through which we can view these larger historical trends, it will be possible to improve our appreciation of his national and international legacies. For example, Osman notes that he was particularly well-suited to sharing power. This trait proved beneficial and necessary in allowing Rochambeau to make executive strategic decisions. She adds that in France, Washington’s reputation changed dramatically from how he was perceived during the Seven Years War; by the end of the American Revolution, he had become a rallying cry for French advocates of change in their own country.

Osman concludes that an increased focus on Franco-American relations will emphasize how the “United States was not born alone.” In both sentiment and impact, “its choices and its successes were part of a larger context, one in which the United States continues to stand in today.”

Thanks to the Gould Foundation, France’s vital role in securing American independence is certain to be better and more widely understood.

My Grandparents - Independence Day in New York Harbor

It was 1913 when a young married couple named Alessandra Dini and Eugenio Anselmi arrived in New York Harbor as Italian immigrants. They left their beautiful home in Tuscany, Italy, to start a new life in America.

They raised four daughters (the oldest was my mother Elda) and grew a small grocery business in Monesson, Pennsylvania while Eugenio prepared for his US citizenship swearing in.

Several years after establishing themselves in Pennsylvania, they sent for their only son, who was back in Italy, to join them.

Although the Anselmi family experienced many hardships, they never looked back. American was their home. They were Italian Americans.

Today, many ill informed people are making it increasingly difficult for young immigrants to reach the same American dream my grand parents worked hard to achieve. Regardless of a person's citizenship status, an immigrant's life is never easy. They are sad about the life left behind, even if they are refugees. Yet, the tide of anti-immigration rising among some Americans is making the transition from immigrant to citizen more difficult than ever before.

Every single American is a descendant of an immigrant. We should honor the brave people who came before us to blaze the democratic road to our economic and social freedoms.

Instead, an anti-immigration movement is rooting itself in the hearts and minds of some people who simply forget where their own ancestry came from. These hypocritical people are likely unable to pass the same citizenship history tests given to newly sworn in American citizens. In fact, a recent survey by the Marist College in New York reported that 25 percent of those interviewed did not even know what country Americans fought to achieve our independence.

"....a new poll suggests more than 1 in 4 Americans don't know which country America declared its independence from. According to a new survey from Marist College, 26 percent failed to correctly identify Great Britain as the country the United States fought an eight-year war with to gain its independence." http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/tag/cnn-ticker-producer-alexander-mooney/?fbid=GMP7hvGmtFN

As Americans celebrate our heritage, freedom and security from wants, we must also honor those who made the sacrifices we appreciate and remember on July 4th - Independence Day.  

To do otherwise is to denigrate the very occasion we joyously salute with fireworks, parades, and decorative bunting topped by flags and highlighted by sparklers. Let's always remember where we came from.

My grandmother Alesandra Dini Anselmi loved the Statue of Liberty in New York Harbor because she knew it was a symbol of all the freedoms America stands for. 

God Bless America.