Hello Downriver,
As we enter the core of this holiday season for Christians — and continue it for Jews, since Hanukkah ends Monday — one thing is impossible to ignore: not the lessons taught by those of faith, but the cruelty and hatred that permeates every corner of our society,
Not just our American society, but our global society.
Still, it’s America that invariably demands our attention, given the repeated, horrific acts of violence by individuals bent on doing harm to others; acts that seem to multiply exponentially before our eyes.
But today, I’m not talking about the lone gunman — someone you may not be able to anticipate and thwart; I’m talking about the growing institutional cruelty being inflicted on too many of us by those we thought were in OUR service.
It’s the internment of friends, neighbors and relatives whose sole “crime” has been to live here, pay taxes, raise families — but do so without status that many of us take for granted: citizenship.
I’m not excusing mass immigration without controls, but the excesses we’re witnessing aren’t aimed at our borders or at wanton criminals; they’re aimed at our cities, towns and neighborhoods.
They’re aimed at working adults with families — and even children.
And we have a president who — although the descendent of immigrants himself and whose wife got her citizenship after first being granted a so-called “Einstein Visa,” generally reserved for immigrants with “extraordinary ability” and “sustained national and international acclaim” (she has neither) — wants to retroactively “denaturalize” those he simply doesn’t like who already have gone through the arduous process.
Adding insult to injury, Trump has opened a massive immigration detention facility at Fort Bliss in El Paso, Texas, which was a former site used to intern people of Japanese descent during World War II.
It was wrong then, it’s wrong now.
But his and his Trumplicans’ cruelty doesn’t begin and end with immigration.
We already know that the much ballyhooed “Big Ugly Bill” they passed this summer granted massive tax cuts for the rich and powerful — while cutting Medicaid and failing to extend ACA tax credits.
In that same indefensible bill, they also implemented the largest cut to SNAP benefits (food stamps) in the program’s history — hurting 16 million children, 8 million seniors, and 4 million non-elderly adults with disabilities.
There’s more, of course.
We see and hear about the cruelties heaped upon Americans every day: rising prices thanks in large part to indefensible tariffs, the impossibility of home ownership for young people because of the greed of lending institutions, the crippling impact of student loans on those least able to afford it, the squeeze put on seniors living with fixed incomes and, of course, the cost of healthcare — if you even have it to begin with.
Yes, Trump has done and said distasteful things; he’s a distasteful, small man.
But being offensive isn’t a moral crime, being cruel is.
In his 2016 victory speech, Trump boasted that “I love the poorly educated.”
Well, he certainly loves to heap cruelties on their lives.
So this holiday season, it’s worth thinking about the teachings of faith — or simply the teachings of our own hearts when it comes to the plight of our fellow man and woman.
No one deserves to be treated as a lesser human being; no one deserves to be judged by the color of their skin, by who they love, by how they look in the mirror, by the way they pray.
And they certainly don’t deserve to be targeted by a small, cruel man and his mob of sycophants (who happen to hold public office); a man who has long demonstrated an inability to show compassion, empathy and even a reasonable attention span when it comes to considering the lives of everyday people.
(The economy is doing great — unless you’re living in the real world.)
Sure, sure, his followers love him for his bombast and think his bullshit will make them all millionaires one day.
But behind both lies, you’ll find cruelty.
And while it’s important to recognize it, it’s equally important to fight it.
Especially this holiday season.
So, a Merry Christmas, a Happy Hanukkah, and a belated Blessed Bodhi Day to our Buddhist friends.
To read my essays, check out Substack.com and look for me at “Farrandipity.” It’s free. Craig Farrand is a former managing editor of The News-Herald. He can be reached at craig.substack@gmail.com.
