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DEAR EDITOR:
In 1948, my cargo boat docked in New York Harbor. Looking at the statue of Liberty and skyscrapers was overwhelming. The absence of check points between the states blew my mind! Instead I saw, "Pennsylvania welcomes you," "Maryland welcomes you," "Virginia welcomes you."
While at Americanization School in Washington, D.C., immigrants from many countries learned basic history of the United States, Constitution and democracy.
President Harry Truman was running for election against Gov. Thomas Dewey of New York. One morning, Harry Truman held the New York Times declaring Dewey elected president! But votes declared otherwise. Dewey congratulated Truman and wished him well. I saw this again with Al Gore and George W. Bush. Gore disagreed with Supreme Court vote in favor of Bush, but he accepted defeat, congratulated Bush and said that the country was more important than he. When John McCain lost to Barack Obama, he immediately congratulated the newly-elected president saying, "He is now my president" -- statesmanship at its finest.
In 1941, President Franklin Roosevelt told the nation about four freedoms: freedom of speech, religion, from want and from fear. We seldom locked our doors. We never feared walking anywhere and we respected separation of church and state. We trusted the news; Walter Cronkite never was questioned. About 6% of the population was on food stamps, and we rarely saw homeless.
But in 1970s, things gradually but relentlessly changed. We started to lose our freedom from fear -- afraid to walk alone, afraid to go to school, afraid to go to places of worship. Security systems and surveillance cameras became ubiquitous and police guards in every public building. Our government representatives are afraid to vote their conscience, citizens fear serving on juries, judges fear rendering justice. Dictatorships rule by fear, not consent -- fear of government and each other. The media -- it is difficult to separate news from entertainment and facts from fiction. Is that what we want and deserve?
In 2023, 12.5% of our citizens, double that of the 1970s, receive food stamps, and streets are occupied by homeless. The 2020 election led to destruction and desecration of our Capitol, temple of democracy, by fellow citizens. Many still contest that election.
This is not the America I knew and loved.
What kind of America will we leave our grandchildren? Ben Franklin said, "we have a republic if we can keep it." John Adams said, "I have yet to see a democracy that did not commit suicide." Are we slowly committing suicide? Is our republic slowly dying, that our grandchildren will know not when it had died?
I cry and pray for my beloved country, United States of America -- a beautiful country created by people for the people. Only we, the people, can save it. Only we, the people, can destroy it.
RASHID ABDU, M.D. F.A.C.S.
Canfield