Devin's "Upbeat Post About Independence Day and Impact Crowdfunding"
This Is an Opinion Piece that Is Not Sponsored or Endorsed by Anyone but the Author
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During the Bicentennial Year of the United States, 1976, I was eleven years old. My grade school spent the entire year spooling up celebrations and even cut an album—I kid you not—of the students, including me, singing patriotic songs and the like. As a fifth grader, I had a moderately prominent role in the effort and was chosen to deliver a recorded speech for the album.
My excitement for the Bicentennial was beyond description.
I imagined myself living—and set a genuine goal I cannot shake—to live to the age of 111 so that I could be interviewed on National Television in 2076 on Independence Day as a bit of living history, someone who could recall 15 or 20 presidents, wars beginning with Vietnam, the fireworks, the tall ships in Boston Harbor and other Bicentennial celebrations—including my grade school album.
My colleague and friend Chandan challenged me to write an upbeat post about Independence Day and impact crowdfunding. I can’t do it.
Here’s the reality. I already have 60+ years of perspective. What America is experiencing today at the hands of a would-be dictator threatens everything I love about America. President Donald Trump is, imho, a petty thug.
Let me be clear about something, too. This isn’t about left-right politics. His hand-picked Supreme Court has ruled against him on some key issues, including this week’s ruling on birthright citizenship.
With the help of AI, I compiled a list of 30 substantial critiques of his term, many of which, if not most, resonate with people across the political spectrum. You can read it here.
Let me give you one of my “favorites.”
Just a few weeks into his term, he terminated at least 17 inspectors general throughout the Federal Government. The President is required by law to provide 30 days' notice and a case-specific rationale for any such termination. He didn’t.
Perhaps you’re thinking that he just purged the government of needless, wasteful spending on bureaucrats. That is a tempting argument. Do you know what the job of an inspector general in the Federal Government was before Donald Trump?
These are the guys responsible for preventing and detecting waste, fraud and abuse, especially from inside the government. One definition says:
In the U.S. federal government, an inspector general is traditionally an independent internal watchdog inside a federal agency.
Their core role is to help ensure that agencies obey the law, spend public money properly, operate efficiently, and correct serious problems. Under the Inspector General Act, IG offices are meant to be “independent and objective” units that conduct audits and investigations, promote economy and effectiveness, prevent and detect fraud and abuse, and keep both agency leaders and Congress informed about problems and corrective action
In other words, Trump fired the people who would monitor him and his minions in the government. He replaced them with cronies who passed his test of loyalty.
If firing the very people who stop corruption in the Government without cause or process isn’t the act of a corrupt wannabe strong man, I’d love to learn what is.
I hate to be a downer on the 4th of July. I also hate to be living in a country sliding into oppression, wrapped in the Red, White and Blue. You’ll have to forgive me for my muted celebration this year.
November’s mid-term elections provide Americans with what could be one last opportunity to rein in a President who sees Vladimir Putin and Adolf Hitler as role models. I hope we’ll use it.
Irving Berlin wrote “God Bless America.” Today, I discovered this recording of him singing the classic song he wrote in the tone of an invocation, a literal plea to God to bless America—backed by Cub Scouts and Girl Scouts—on the Ed Sullivan Show. His prayer is mine today.