For those of you who are looking for your weekly fix of humor, forgive me, but you will have to go elsewhere this time. I am mad as hell and I won’t take it anymore. Read on and you will understand.
Were it not enough for Trump (I no longer am willing to address him as President Trump) to dismiss disabled people, African Americans, Mexicans (make that all Latinos), transgender people, undocumented immigrants and members of Congress including many members of his own Republican Party, Trump is now taking on legal immigrants. He wishes to reduce their numbers in half and pretty much close the door on those immigrants who do not have specific skills and can’t speak English. I take this personally!
My grandmother, Dora Rogovin, came to this country from Eastern Europe in the early 1900s. You can count on your hand the people in my life whom I loved as much. Like many Jewish immigrants, she had no skills and spoke no English. Had Trump’s edict been in force then, I would not be writing this column today.
Grandma spoke Yiddish and a strange language combining Yiddish and English. She never was able to read English. She had three children, including my mother, Rose, who taught school and married the son of an immigrant, my father, a successful businessman who paid millions of dollars in taxes during his lifetime; my aunt Helen, who married Bernie Levine, also the son of an immigrant. Bernie became a high ranking civil servant in the Social Security Administration; and my uncle Sammy who, like my dad, became a successful businessman.
Grandma had six grandchildren, two of whom went to Harvard and one to Princeton. Her grandchildren include a journalist, therapist, college professor and a humor writer for The Malibu Times.
Grandma’s story is anything but unique. Practically all my parents’ friends had immigrant parents, and through hard work many, if not most of them, became doctors, lawyers, accountants and businessmen despite the many roadblocks and discrimination they were forced to endure.
Now we have Trump, who once again wants to create obstacles for millions of people who only wish to taste freedom or be united with their families. My guess is that millions of voters who cast their ballots for Trump have immigrant ancestors who did not speak English when they first came here. Many of these voters will no longer take kindly to this mean spirited man. The sooner he is out of office the better.