AMERICAN VS IMMIGRANT

I am the child of immigrants interned in camps by Hitler and sent to Siberia by Stalin. I am always amazed by the entitlement of Americans and some foreign nationals not blessed with this authoritarian pedigree. I worry if I don't have my prescription number when I call the pharmacy, if I've gotten ahead of anyone on line and am terrified of any government letter. But at the slightest slight, Americans will hold a roomful of people up to get what they think is their due, and their due is always ten times what I would ask. And they expect good treatment, even when they are in the wrong, always ready to defend their bad behavior. I was born apologizing. Needless to say, some poets are immigrants, and some (you know who) are as American as Donald Trump.

The true face of America?

The true face of America - that is what Iran called Trump. There is no love lost between our two nations (I am blessed with Iranian friends who translate my work, so I mean the ruling politicals of Iran). But so: Trump symbolizes the ugly American---a marauding, selfish jingoist who rolls over anyone and anything that does not serve him. I read my share of Noam Chomsky (politics, not linguistics), and despite the dirty tricks and black ops, I still believed we were a great nation, flawed but still honorable, still great. Is Trump an outgrowth of who we really are, or a fluke of tweeting and too much TV? Have we been developing into an authoritarian state all along, or is Trump anomalous (and soon gone, I hope)?