by By: Adams-Wade, Norma
On this Fourth of July holiday, I feel compelled to write to the President of the United States.
Naturally, this missive won’t be viewed by you, the general public, until it is widely distributed.
Here is what I said to our national leader, though.
Greetings, President.
I refer to you as Mr. President because of respect for the position you occupy and for all of your predecessors, whose I believe served our nation with purposeful integrity.
You rank 47th in that honorable procession that dates back over 200 years, to the time of our first American president, Lieutenant General George Washington, in 1789.
Celebrations in the community versus bigotry
Naturally, today marks the celebration of our country’s independence from British domination. These days, fireworks, public gatherings, special banquets, and flag displays are all prominent symbols and activities.
However, today’s focus is equally on a great deal of hatred, intolerance, strife, power struggles, and greed.
They haven’t always been, though. However, those unwanted characteristics are no longer concealed. All hoods are removed today, much like the infamous KKK hoods that once concealed faces.
When you and your henchmen say, “Make America Great Again,” most of us understand what you mean. According to our interpretation, America will once again be great if you put people of color and the underprivileged back in our position and under your control.
It’s interesting to note that the Juneteenth event is held shortly following the July 4th holiday. I am certain that you have already removed the information from all of your history books, therefore I am reminding you. Juneteenth honors the date of June 19, 1865, when enslaved descendants of Motherland Africa in Texas discovered that the Emancipation Proclamation, which was signed by U.S. President Abraham Lincoln two years earlier in 1863, had abolished slavery and set the nation’s enslaved people free. Powerbrokers in Texas had concealed that fact in order to keep making money off of the free labor of Africans held in slavery. Cruelty and greed in the open.
However, I merely had the urgent question: where is your heart today, Mr. President?
I have occasionally felt sorry for you because I believe that your early years, for whatever reason, caused scars that continue to feed your hatred toward other people.
I have to admit right away that you are not the only one that is insensitive to people of color and those with little to no financial or political influence. Not at all.
Many people adore you despite your hatred.
Due to your actions toward the oppressed, you appear to be admired and highly regarded by countless people, hate-filled fringe groups, and far-right extremists.
We’ve all heard some of the names: white supremacist militia, right-wing Christian nationalists, Islamophobes, Oath Keepers, and Proud Boys.
The official newspaper of the racist Ku Klux Klan supported you for president in 2016. However, you did discreetly decline the endorsement later on, perhaps sensibly, after consulting your advisors.
You seem to have little tolerance for those who lack wealth and influence. The argument that your disdain encompasses groups such as immigrants, powerful women, and anyone who does not treat you like a king is supported by a number of examples.
Your government is burdened with diversity, equality, and inclusion (DEI), which is characterized as giving people of color an unfair edge. Similarly, the original purpose of affirmative action was to increase racial equity in hiring.
In the Trump administration, there aren’t many African-Americans in high-level jobs. Rightly or incorrectly, critics loudly declare that your administration is filled with DEI appointees who are not people of color but rather your inept puppets and loyalists.
Republicans like Scott Turner, the current secretary of Housing and Urban Development, are an exception. He is in line with African American Republicans who held that role in earlier administrations, such as Alphonso Jackson and Ben Carson.
trickle-down behaviors and attitudes
According to an old proverb, attitudes and behaviors in businesses and organizations originate at the top and then spread to the workforce. However, there is scant to no proof that the trickle-down economics theory of former Republican President Ronald Reagan was effective. Reagan believed that the wealth of the wealthy would eventually flow down to the poor if their financial situation improved. Not at all.
Society is currently in turmoil due to government budget cuts and new laws that experts claim would deprive countless residents of food, housing assistance, health insurance, and other necessities, as well as endanger some jobs and social security.
Orders to remove Black History literature and artifacts from museums and libraries are examples of abominations.
prohibiting the teaching of Black history in schools and colleges. Additionally, giving organizations and businesses the danger of losing financing if they continue to implement initiatives that help people of color achieve better status and equal footing in the workplace.
Fear of losing the white supremacist statute and authority over historically underprivileged people is the fundamental driving force behind all of this.
Liberty Statue and Frederick Douglass
For many years, people admired the Statue of Liberty because it said, “Give me your huddled masses yearning to breathe free.” These days, masked Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officials treat suspected illegal immigrants like dangerous criminals and take them off the streets and from their jobs in handcuffs so they can be deported or imprisoned.
Abolitionist Frederick Douglass famously questioned, “What to the slave is the Fourth of July?” in 1852, before President Lincoln abolished slavery more than ten years later in 1863. Douglass noted that while the country rejoiced, African descendants of slaves had nothing to rejoice about as long as they were still held in slavery.
Finally, Mr. President, I implore you to imagine what it’s like to be unemployed, a single mother raising children alone, an elderly person on social security, a homeless person without a roof over their head, a father drowning in debt, a man trying to support his family on meager wages from his low-wage job, and a mentally ill person wandering the streets, talking to themselves, since former President Reagan drastically reduced federal funding in the early 1980s to the point where mental health facilities closed, leaving the mentally disadvantaged on the streets.
So, Mr. President, where is your heart? The Declaration of Independence, which was adopted on July 4, 1776, states that all men and women are created equal and that their Creator has given them certain unalienable rights, among which are the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. We believe that upholding these principles is the first step toward making America great. In addition, President Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address from 1863 states that “our fathers brought forth on this continent a new nation, conceived in liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men (and women) are created equal.” He also states that “government of the people, by the people, for the people” will not disappear from the earth and that “All men (and women) are created equal.”
Norma Adams-Wade is a retired senior staff writer for the Dallas Morning News, a proud native of Dallas, and a journalism graduate of the University of Texas at Austin. The National Association of Black Journalists was founded by her. yahoo.com/Norma Adams Waden.
