Mass deportation is uppermost in a mad man’s plan on his first day back to being president again and my eyes dampen as vivid recollections flood my mind, memories of an earlier time in my lifetime. 1944. I was six years old. Standing in a park near my house, listening to fiery “Get-Those-Japs-Because-They’re- the-Enemy” speeches by angry White men, while other agitated people, men and women and children, waved posters of “Japs” with exaggerated buck teeth and slanted eyes, looking as though they really were animalistic as the speakers had described, with marching-band music blasting to the skies, and these images dominated my dreams and it took me a while to accept the offspring of Japan as what they are: humans. And here we are committing the same sin again, much to my annoyance, in 2024 when I’ve reached the age of 86 and my soul drenches in deep emotional pain knowing that now, as I’m stuck in a flood of déjà vu, my grandchildren and great-grandchildren and one great-great-grandchild are experiencing what I went through, seeing their fellow human beings, this time immigrants, seeking a more hopeful life, being demonized, being referred to as animals, stone-cold killers, the worst people, the enemy within, folks who will eat their neighbors’ cats and dogs and such, examples of racism running amok, let loose by a president who has peculiarities similar to those possessed by a cartoon character like Daffy Duck, greedy, self-centered, egotistical and out of control, bent on dragging a once promising democracy through the muck, eager for the buck to stop with him, ever so much. That a man has brought this to my progeny burns my soul. But now I really know for certain that the work of building a better world is an effort that never grows old. To endure this and someday get back on track again on behalf of our children, “We the People” will have to stay on our toes.
Ernie McCray is an activist for love and peace who acts and sings and writes both poetry and prose, a man who rises each day to do whatever he can, no matter how small or grand, to make the world better in some way.
Unapologetically.