Have you ever read something in the news that most people would consider unimportant, and it cause a stronger reaction in your mind than it seemed to deserve?
That happened to me on Saturday. Here’s the headline:
“National parks’ fee-free calendar drops MLK Day, Juneteenth and adds Trump’s birthday”
Reading on, I learned that our national parks have long had certain days where there was no fee to enter the park (“fee-free days”). In the past, those included both Martin Luther King Jr. Day and Juneteenth.
Now, those two days have been removed from the fee-free calendar, and what has been added? Donald Trump’s birthday.
I don’t know why, but this one small act just really bothered me. It was so subservient, so blatant, so dictator-like that it hit me like few other things have.
I immediately thought of other dictators who demanded that their birthday be honored by their citizens:
- Kim Jung Un of North Korea
- Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe
- Saddam Hussein of Iraq
And of course, Adolf Hitler of Nazi Germany, whose April 20 birthday was celebrated from 1933 to 1944, including a national holiday in 1939 for his 50th birthday. (Except for Jews – they were banned from the streets on German national holidays.)
There are many stories these days about Trump’s dismal approval ratings, and about the factions within MAGA and “Republicans in disarray.” And perhaps those foretell the end of this fascist takeover of our country, and the rejection of dictatorship by the majority of Americans.
But if instead Trump and his band of criminals are able to seize all the power and implement an authoritarian regime, this small news item will be one of the signposts down that road of perdition that I will remember.
--30--
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