The American Scapegoat

 

As we dive into today’s topic, I close my eyes and draw back to memories of my yesteryears.  I think back to the 3rd grade when I and my classmates met a holocaust survivor.  Over the course of a morning, she told her story of being rounded up by the Nazis and taken against her will to a concentration camp, that being Auschwitz.  For years following this experience, I had nightmares every night that would continue where they left off when I would drift off to sleep once again.  Some nights I would stay up just so I wouldn’t have to experience the raw fear and emotion that I was subjected to.  

As we move this story forward 30 years until the present day, I think of the concept of a scapegoat.  What is a scapegoat?  A scapegoat is someone or group that is unfairly blamed for a problem, especially when the real causes are more complicated or someone else’s responsibility.  As my mind focuses near, I think about this concept in America today.  Although it may seem farfetched to compare the current administration to that of Nazi Germany, there are direct correlations between the two.  A government that instills fear into the minds of innocent people, declaring them outcasts for wanting a better life, is simply monstrous.  

To round up people and throw them in cages, providing national police forces like ICE unkept power to round up innocent men, women, and children by force because of some existential threat to the American way of life is beyond belief.  Joseph Goebbels, Heinrich Himmler, and the Gestapo did these very things 80+ years ago to what they saw as the scapegoat and threat to the German Reich.  History has a way of repeating itself, essentially teaching future generations of governments how to gain power and support from the masses.  To think that this could happen in my country is beyond fathomable, yet we sit at a crossroad of political subversion.  

Although immigrants aren't rounded up by the thousands and shot at point blank range or rounded up only to be sent to the gas chamber, the unchecked power of the federal government is alarming to say the least.  Trump’s monster has many heads, none of which show any sense of rational thought or logical reasoning.  To think that people only come to this country to ruin it for others already here is absolutely absurd.  I have worked hand in hand from a young age with immigrants from all over the world in my hometown, none of which made life worse for others.  To scapegoat immigrants is to challenge the principles of this very nation for we are a nation of immigrants.  

Although it is pure speculation to some, it appears the current administration wants to see a white, christian nationalist country.  They have gone to great lengths to bring such a world into fruition.  The backbone of this nation was built by immigrants, to project fear into the minds and hearts of hard working people is beyond that of reason.  To try and fail you will, for a nation is built by the common good of all mankind, not that of power hungry men sitting in the ivory tower.  Trump and his administration is simply not grounded in reality, far from understanding what they are doing is criminal in nature. 

The American Scapegoat is that brown and black immigrant, labeled garbage criminals who are to be eliminated by any means necessary.  Trump and his cronies highlight a small minority of people who are here to do harm to the American way of life.  To expel such false realities is a disservice to the mass of people who want to hold onto hope, hope of a better future for all to enjoy.  To think that all men and women are created equal seems farfetched in the mind of Trump and his administration based on their harsh and false rhetoric.  In the end, I want to see a world that is better than we left it, not a world that is left to scapegoat others to gain control of a reality that is far from true.