Time to Think

No Kings, Big Protests, Overreaction                      #341 By Hank Silverberg  "No Kings!" That was the cry that brought as many as seven million people out to protest in more than 2,000 communities from large venues like Los Angeles and New York City to small towns like Fredericksburg, Virginia. In general, they were mostly peaceful, with only a few confrontations, mostly on the west coast. What the demonstrations made clear is that there are millions of people very unhappy with some major policies from the Trump administration after just six months in office.  For some it was the insidious ICE fishing expeditions where they rounded up the usual suspects and sorted out who is actually a criminal later, while punishing people who did nothing wrong but crossed a border to look for a better life.    For others it's the massive cuts in federal spending that have ruined some lives already, and could hurt million...

  Xenophobia and Trump    #340 By Hank Silverberg I am second generation American.  My parents were born here, my grandparents were not. As I have written before in this blog, two-thirds of the people now residing in the United States are less than three generations removed from their immigrant ancestors. President Trump was reminded of that this past week when the newly elected German Chancellor, Friedrich Mertz, visited the White House. Mr. Mertz presented Mr. Trump with a gold framed birth certificate of the President's grandfather, Friedrich Trump, who was born in Germany in 1869 and immigrated to the U.S. in 1885. Mertz said, "it's a small present to remind you of your family."  Friedrich Trump left Germany to avoid the draft (irony?), but was able to come to the United States because of chain migration--his sister already lived here and the U.S. needed foreign labor.    It was a trend that cannot be forgotten or shoved aside. Immigrants built thi...