Today is an American holiday, and one in which Hallmark has yet to print cards to celebrate, but the celebrations have begun from tailgating, BBQ’s, parties for friends and families by all Americans of every shape, size, color, sexual preference, and religious or non-religious belief. (As an aside, I am sure whichever team wins, Trump will of course Tweet, they did it for him). We will watch as the the American Flag is flown and listen as our National Anthem is sung. But then for me, HERE is the question to be asked….This moment, this Super Bowl, this All American Holiday, EXACTLY what are we willing to either ignore or accept to ourselves, let alone the world, regarding our democratic principals of equality, freedom, justice? A man is sitting in the White House, surrounded by a self-identified White Supremacist with close ties to a Russian Government, a government willing to admit of their hacking and interference regarding one of the last sacred definitions of the democratic process, are elections. We have a Republican Party refusing to challenge Trump, even as they understand the danger he imposes on the US and the world. We have plans to undermine the freedoms of the LGBT community, women no longer have any voice regarding their bodies, with new laws insisting that a rapist can sue his victim if she wants an abortion and husbands must have the final word of abortions. We have religious groups be they Muslim or Jewish categorized as the enemy. Our environment is already teetering in an abyss, but we now are witnessing more laws to endanger all of the living species in the world.
So, today as we sing, “O say can you see by the dawn's early light,
What so proudly we hailed at the twilight's last gleaming,
Whose broad stripes and bright stars through the perilous fight
O'er the ramparts we watched, were so gallantly streaming?
And the rockets' red glare, the bombs bursting in air,
Gave proof through the night that our flag was still there;”
Are we ready to just ignore the fact, that this anthem may become as empty a promise as Trump/The Republicans/The Bigots/Racists/Misogynists/Neo Nazi’s/ have so far successfully done with the US Constitution? So far, we have seen empty words spoken, but the content behind all of them has been filled with malice. Today is an All American day, but soon anything All American may disappear and become just for some Americans!
