Letter to the editor from Max Wiesen, Greenwich, July 2, 2018
At the age of 75, I did not expect to have lived my life twice, but as we slide back into the 1940’s and ‘50’s, it looks like I will.
Roy Cohn has been reborn as Steven Miller; honest people are losing “face” and positions, not accused of being Communists, but because they smell the deceit of a government that may be in collusion with a new version of Communism.
Muslim and Hispanic immigrants are being turned away by a man who disparages the welcoming message of Emma Lazarus on The Statue of Liberty just as shiploads of Jews were once returned to gas chambers Clear skies over Manhattan may again be fouled by the acrid smoke of coal-burning furnaces and burning buildings in The South Bronx.
Scott Pruitt will ensure that no fish survive in The Hudson River’s poisoned waters.
In Trump’s “script”, African-Americans may once again work as train porters or maids and, despite the imperative of history, be discouraged from voting; if they are not shot by gun-toting white men.
Gay men and women may once again be forbidden to serve in the armed forces or marry, or raise children, or freely appear in public.
Women may lose control over their reproductive rights.
Our friends will once again be our enemies, and our enemies our “false” friends. In fact, the future of the world will lie in the hands of China, whose long history has championed some of the greatest periods of economic and cultural growth in the history of civilization.
My youthful pride in America’s achievements – our extraordinary automobile industry, technological and medical advances, and, specifically, the success of my immigrant grandparents as innovators and manufacturers of clothing and paper goods – has turned to dismay.
We had our opportunity to move forward and adapt to new forms of energy, new societal mores, new technologies, and new leadership.
Instead, under this president, we have regressed, and that makes me very sad indeed.
Sincerely,
Maxwell P. Wiesen