“Mr. Trump, Tear Down That Wall!”

I was reminiscing the other day, thinking about Ronald Reagan, former President of the United States, Republican, who served from around 1980 to about 1988, when he went out of office.  During that period, one of the events which is permanently etched on my consciousness if the memory of him standing in West Berlin, and looking at the Berlin Wall, separating West from East Berlin, President Reagan said these immortal words:  “Mr. Gorbachev, tear down that wall!”  I remember it as if it were yesterday, and the electricity, the awe, the sheer power of this idea which permeated all of Berlin, East and West!  It was a declaration of the end of the Cold War between the USA and the Soviet Union (U.S.S.R.) and it marked the beginning of a new era of relationship, some called it “détente” between East and West.  With the opening of Communist China by Nixon and Kissinger and now the opening of East Berlin:  “I am a Berliner” (in the famous words of John F. Kennedy), although apparently he actually said in German, “I am a hot dog”, nevertheless, the point was well made and understood by all who heard both men.  The USA is standing for democracy and the rights of all men and women to be free.

Enter now, Donald Trump, so-called President-elect of the United States of America.  “God help us!” is ringing throughout the land among those who have lived long enough to remember President John F. Kennedy in the 1960s and President Ronald Reagan in the 1980s.  Who is this man who pretends to be our president almost 40 years later?  In my mind’s eye, I imagine someone bringing up either of these two men from the grave.  Would they not both declare to Donald T, “Mr. President –elect, tear down your walls!”

President Kennedy authorized air lifts of life-giving supplies to rescue West Berlin from the Soviet blockage designed to starve the people of food and other needed items.  President Reagan simply announced what everyone knew to be the right thing to do, joining East Berlin to West Berlin and healing a divided city.

But Donald Trump, whom I do not recognize as my president says, “Let’s build a wall to keep out illegal Mexicans, criminals and rapist, terrorists and unwanted citizens.”  Never, let me say again, Never in the history of the United States have we build any walls to separate one human person from another.  We have placed criminals behind bars for the period of their sentence.  We have interned Japanese citizens because we were afraid of them for a time after the bombing of Pearl Harbor to begin WWII for us.  And we have built fences on our southern border to define where the border actually is placed.  But now really, “build a wall across the badlands and the deserts to keep our borders safe from illegal aliens, criminals from Mexico and the like.

No, this wall is destined to lock us into a place we don’t want to be, a place of hatred, suspicion, intolerance, what I call “a great divide”.  Donald T manipulated many good Americans of many stripes to win this election.  He played loudly on every fear, hate, and folly of the public’s imagination, creating boogey men who do not even exist in order to secure the support of many American citizens.  Mostly, he fed off of the discontent among the shrinking middle class who no longer can make stellar wages doing manufacturing jobs, because many of these have long been gone to Mexico, Vietnam and China.

Trump stood in the Carrier factory in Indiana this week, proclaiming the saving of about 1000 American jobs.  Out of the 150,000 jobs already lost in manufacturing, will this help a lot?  More likely United Technologies, the parent company, was worried about the millions they stood to lose in government contracts if Trump decided to punish them as sitting president.  Taking Bernie Sanders idea to “make them pay if they leave the country”, the message is clear.  You had damn well better please the President, or it will cost you something, money or something else, because he is as we already know a petty and vindictive spirit, now surrounding himself with petty and vindictive persons for his cabinet who are known to play hard ball with whomever to get whatever they want.

I will not conjure, but I will remind us all of the spirit and attitude of President Reagan and President Kennedy.  Neither president spent any time talking about building walls.  Both celebrated America’s great democratic ideals.  Both provided a check on the Soviet Union’s desire to expand the power of communism across the world.

Someone should remind Mr. Trump and his cronies that we no longer live in the 1950s when because of nuclear weapons, for a time, the USA could legitimately proclaim it was the only world power.  This is no longer the case.  Our world is now interdependent on each of us as nations to play our part in the global expanse of democratic ideals.

What the people of the world need is not a wall builder, but a BRIDGE BUILDER!  We need a president who does not live in a golden Tower with his name on it, but a President who can bridge the gaps between people.  The jobs of the 21^st century will be built on cooperation and interdependence.  Our brave new world is not manufacturing steel and mining coal.  Our new world will be built on new technologies which help solve the energy crisis, which grow food enough for all without polluting our planet, which provide clean water so everyone has enough to drink, which attacks climate change as our new religion, so we together save our common lives from an uncommon destruction!

It does not take a great mind nor perfect vision to see and understand what we need in this season of our lives together on this planet!  Let us work toward energies which do not pollute, but instead renew.  Let us not waste energy and water resources raising beef when what we need is a food made of algae that makes use protein from the energy of the sun.  If we learn how to farm the earth without chemicals so we can live in symbiosis with nature, perhaps we can heal what we have almost destroyed by our modern methods of agriculture.  We can build an electric grid which is not vulnerable to terrorists and by sharing our wealth and technology with everyone, there won’t be any need for walls to keep out people, because everyone can have everything they need or want in their own homes.

The world could have a universal and reliable internet for everyone if we chose to do it.  Transportation could all be public and clean, only requiring a reasonable fee to ride, if we choose to make it possible.

The energy of oil and coal can be preserved to be used later when we learn how to use it without pollution, if we worked for this goal.

President Kennedy talked about going to the moon in his generation.  Some in ours wish to go on to Mars.  As for me, I would be happy with simply cleaning up our planet, offering homes, schools, food and jobs for everyone.  I would be pleased if we had universal healthcare, so we could spend our time in more creative ways than going always to see physicians.

Clean air, clean water and good food should be the right of all persons on the planet.  It is not too much to ask that everyone have access to good health care.  When did we forget about what we all dream about and share?  When did we forget we are all human beings and are all made in the image of God our Creator, Savior and Redeemer?  I say, it is not too late to dream again!  It is not too late to be full of hope and compassion!  It is not too late for us to all make a difference in our world!

Perhaps, what I say is only “just a dream”.  But is a dream for a place to have democracy and freedom from the rule of tyrants and kings that brought about this nation years ago.  Let us not forget why we all began this grand experiment of democracy.

I fault Donald Trump not for wanting to be president of the United States, but for forgetting what Presidents are supposed to do.  Presidents should represent all the people, not just the ones who have money and power.

I pray to God for a wake-up call for America!  I pray we do not forget why we are here, what we are here for and why our forefathers died so we could live in this democracy for all men and women who are in these United States.  What is wrong with a reasonable and fair path to citizenship for all races, creeds and tribes?  What is wrong with welcoming those persons who are not like ourselves?  Will it change us for the worse if we embrace them and show them kindness?  Do we really believe that God is only our God and not their God too?!

I went to sleep and lived in the democracy of the United States of America.  I woke up and found Donald Trump ascending to the presidency.  What happened in the one night I slept?  I don’t know, I honestly do not know!  I went to sleep and dreamed, but awoke in the middle of a nightmare!  But the nightmare has not gone away!  “God help us, I say!  God help us!”  So now the only peace I have is went I sleep, but when awake I have not peace, only a terrible headache and an evolving nightmare!  “God help us!  May God help us all!”

A Voice of One Crying in the Wilderness, “Make straight in this desert a Highway for our God!”

“Maranatha!”  Come quickly to save us, Lord Jesus Christ!  “Amen!”  Let all of God’s people say, ”Amen!”  “Amen!  We praise and worship you, Lord Jesus Christ, for You are the only Lord we recognize and the only God we serve!”  “Amen and Amen!”