Define ‘great,’ please
Donald Trump wants to make America great “again.” When does he think that was?
Was it when people were living in urban squalor, joining the gangs of America, working like slaves – actually being slaves? Putting a deadly pressure on the native people by fleeing the East coast for the western forests, because city water could not be kept disease-free.
Were we great when we ran the native people off their land and herded them to the wasteland of Oklahoma?
Was it when separate but equal stood as constitutional, or the years of exploited labor by the “robber barons?” (A group of businessmen Mr. Trump admires.)
Examples of non-greatness go on and on.
No, America wasn’t great when ruled by ignorance, fear and lawlessness, and it isn’t great today any time those elements rule.
America is in a state of becoming. What’s behind the becoming is what was there at the beginning – humanitarian philosophy, the best of legal thinking, innovations created by looking at nature scientifically, and the right to public education.
What exactly is his great picture of America in regards to these elements?
Fred Dillon, Fresno
This story was originally published August 12, 2015 at 10:45 AM with the headline "Define ‘great,’ please."