New Book Blog Post #4 President Trump has called the press “our country’s biggest enemy”.

The First Amendment in the Unites States’ Bill of Rights guarantees freedom of the press. Justice Stewart said that because of the role the press plays in keeping the public informed…the press is constitutionally entitled to government “sensitivity”.

But President Trump has called the press “our country’s biggest enemy”.

This point of view harks back to 1798, when President John Adams was the leader of the Federalist Party. He and its members believed that their political party was the government because once the people elected them there should be no criticism. In fact by electing them, the people had passed all decision-making powers to the party in power. The Federalists passed the Alien and Seditions Acts, which were designed to overpower dissenters, ensure conformity and get rid of foreigners. Many people were arrested for sedition, including newspaper writers and editors. When found guilty, they would be jailed and fined up to $5000.

By the Way: When Thomas Jefferson was elected president in 1800, by a wide margin, the Alien and Seditions Acts were repealed.

NEW BOOK #3 In the US, more than 2,000 children remain separated from their parents as of July 5, 2018

The policy of separating immigrant children from their parents is most disturbing.

Even though this policy was abandoned by Executive order on June 20, there was no provision in place to reunite the affected families. In the US, more than 2,000 children remain separated from their parents as of July 5, 2018. The National Public Radio reported on June 15, that the American Academy of Pediatricians says separating children from their parents can cause trauma severe enough to limit brain development. They condemned the policy as “government sanctioned child abuse”, according to the Globe and Mail editorial of June 19, 2018.

As in my last blog, I looked for historical precedence for this particular behaviour.

I found a possible explanation in the response to the slave trade in research by Du Bois. When the slave trade was of least financial advantage in 1774 and 1804, it might have been possible to exert moral persuasion to eliminate it, but, “A fatal spirit of temporizing, however, seized the nation at these points; and although the slave-trade was, largely for political reasons, forbidden, slavery was left untouched. Beyond this point, as years rolled by, it was found well-nigh impossible to rouse the moral sense of the nation. Even in the matter of enforcing its own laws and co-operating with the civilized world, a lethargy seized the country.” (The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Suppression of the African Slave Trade to the United States of America, by W. E. B. Du Bois)

By the Way: I wonder if this is what President Trump and Kelly, his Chief of Staff, were banking on when planning this policy, that the moral sense of the nation is asleep.

NEW BOOK #2 - SEPARATING FAMILIES A THROWBACK TO THE 17th CENTURY

Different Strokes: Answers to the Perplexing Differences Between Americans and Canadians is the product of the theory, investigation and subsequent proof. The answers emerge from the beginnings of each country. Knowing this helps to explain what we see and read in current events.

It is shocking to see children separated from their parents now, when we know how damaging and traumatic it can be in the long run.  Indigenous people in Canada and the Canadian government are still dealing with the emotional fallout from First Nation, Inuit and Métis children sent to residential schools.

In America the separation of children from their parents was a regular occurrence during the era of slavery. The Slavery Code of 1698 in the southern states was a carry over from the one in Barbados, where the American southern planters originated. It was the most brutal slavery code at the time.  This punitive code was not universal; slave owners in Virginia were much more humane in their dealings with their slaves.

Punishment has also been a common theme in America. When the republic was formed in 1776, anyone who was not with the republic was considered a traitor. Land was confiscated and Loyalists were persecuted. That is why 50,000 Loyalists left to go to England, the Caribbean Islands and the majority to Canada.

Steve Schmidt, a Republican strategist, resigned from his position because of the child-separation policy. (Mason, Gary, The Warning…Op Ed column, Globe and Mail, June 22/18) Schmidt compared this policy to some of the worst abuses to humanity in the country’s history. “It is connected by the same evil that separated families during slavery and dislocated tribes and broke Native American families.”

Now there is a president in America who is impulsive, demeans people from Mexico and other Central American countries, plays to his base and has no concern for the chaos he is causing in their lives. He is carrying on some of the most inhumane actions perpetrated in the past in America.

By the Way: There has been a huge outcry against his actions because the majority of Americans has moved on from that inhumane behaviour or would never have acted that way in the first place.