MICHAEL NABORS

MONDAY, JUNE 11, 2018

 

Rights

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Let me put this out here just before the so-called “summit” between Kim Jong Un and Donald Trump.  If Barak Obama had made the decision to meet with an atrocious dictator who has committed 10 recognized crimes against humanity, the political and public outcry would have prevented the meeting.  Period.  Jong Un has committed; murder, extermination, forcible transfer, imprisonment, torture, sexual violence, persecution and enforced disappearances. Defectors from North Korea have cited newborns being fed to dogs, executions of starving prisoners and the torture of Christians.  This is all on record.  The “gulags” (camps) under Jong Un are reputed to be as awful as Nazis camps.  

Let’s get this right.  This is who Donald Trump is meeting in a few hours with no one present in the room, except translators (according to media).  Of course this is scandalous.  The reason why there has never been a meeting with North Korea’s leaders is because the United States did not want to lend a shred of legitimacy to a torturous dictator whose capacity to end human life was/is as easy as taking a leisurely stroll down the street.  Rationale, logic, common sense (all virtues we once held so dearly) were the order of the day.  Something new has taken their place; illogic, lack of common sense, brashness and a woeful neglect of careful research and preparation.  

Part of this absurd summit makes sense.  If you have not yet heard, our own United States Supreme Court upheld Ohio’s purge of voting polls in a 5-4 vote earlier today.  The court ruled that states may kick people off their rolls if they skip a few elections and fail to respond to a notice from election officials.  This my brothers and sisters is called voter suppression.  The conservative justices voted in favor while progressive judges voted against.  Last week, this same Supreme Court reached a majority decision in Masterpiece Cakeshop Ltd. v. Civil Rights Commission.  They voted in favor of the bakers who refused to supply a cake for a gay couple, based upon their religious beliefs.  In short, it was a blow to the LGBTQ community.  The U.S. Attorney General has gone on record to declare the president of the United States has a right to pardon anyone without consulting the Justice Department.  46-1 (thanks to a friend) has since pardoned white racist Joe Arpaio and is throwing in a few African Americans to avoid being labeled a racist.  

Trump and his legion have brought into the public arena, the deep and wide divisions that have existed in our nation over the years.  He is using people, places, things, religion, politics, money and power as tools to paint his brand upon the nation and world.  He is very successfully widening the division in this nation through tactical methods that are militaristic and nationalistic in nature.  It is all for the express purpose of amassing means and money, authority and riches...by any means necessary.  From my little corner of the world, just a small tiny place on the western shores of Lake Michigan I can see this unfolding drama.  About eighty-eight years ago in Munich, Germany Benito met with Adolf (one of several meetings) in a very strange meeting of former, ruthless dictators.  Mussolini saw the growing power of Germany and wanted part of it.  A fascist regime communicated with a Nazi regime.  Both were on the wrong side of history.  Hundreds of thousands of innocent civilians and troops paid the awful price.  

So listen folks, this is not the first time dictators came together to meet...plotting for their place “in history” and for their own narrow, nationalistic ideologies to dot the landscape of their continents.  History repeats itself...so clearly sometimes.  Let’s wake up, please.