In Colorado, a certain number of specialty license plates show an image of the light purple-and-white state flower, the columbine, and the phrase, “Respect Life.”
It’s tender and thoughtful, near poetry. And it’s propaganda.
The state’s last Republican governor, Bill Owens, authorized it in 2000 after lawmakers rejected the idea.
He said it memorialized the victims of the Columbine High School massacre. The plates had an ulterior motive, though.
Many sensed that, in sly ambiguity, with Owens’ anti-choice policies, the plates were a clear sop to those who would ban abortion rights.
Twenty-four years later in the Age of Trump, when you see such a license plate, you can bet your favorite pet that whoever displays it is a Republican. This driver “respects life.” And you don’t. Now, get out of the way.
It’s just one more MAGA flag. And one more MAGA lie.
We could focus here on abortion, how Donald Trump’s Supreme Court nominees empowered states to impose the most oppressive legal constraints on individual freedom since the Fugitive Slave Act.
Instead, let us contemplate the false claims and unconscionable slurs being spouted and repeated about immigrants from the serpent tongues of Trump and his reptile servant, J.D. Vance.
What those two have done to Springfield, Ohio, with their gaseous claims is akin to what a derailed, toxin-filled train did to the Ohio berg of East Palestine last year. It caused high anxiety. It closed schools and businesses. It made people fear for their lives.
Those most in fear are fully documented — yes, “legal” — Haitian immigrants. Again: legal. You know this, J.D. Vance, though you have portrayed them otherwise. Only a desperate and cheap politician would do something so hurtful.
Now, don’t think for a second that only Haitians in Ohio suffer because of this. Anyone with dark coloration in Springfield has an added degree of fear in his or her life because of two dangerous demagogues.
The recipe for bigotry is simple. Find a group, and whatever its contributions, its virtues, whatever sameness its members share with the rest of us, believe the worst about them.
Believe that people from “shithole countries” like Haiti are ignorant and dangerous. In Springfield, that lie is rebutted by good work and good works.
Here’s what Miriam Jordan of The New York Times reported, thoughts echoed by Springfield leaders:
“By most accounts, the Haitians have helped revitalize Springfield.
“They are assembling car engines at Honda, running vegetable-packing machines at Dole and loading boxes at distribution centers. They are paying taxes on their wages and spending money at Walmart. On Sundays they gather at churches for boisterous, joyful services in Haitian Creole.”
These people fit perfectly into the American saga in every way.
Anyone who “respects life” should stand up for them.
One stunning hypocrisy of MAGA is how it constantly trumpets Christianity. What an act.
Ask Pastor Carl Ruby of Springfield Central Christian Church. He had this to say as pertains to productive souls in his community and in the family of man:
“You can’t claim to be loyal to Jesus if you can’t also show love to immigrants.”
For as it says in Leviticus, “The alien residing among you must be treated as your native-born. Love them as yourself.”
Stick that on your shiny bumper.
Longtime newspaperman John Young lives in Colorado. Email: jyoungcolumn@gmail.com.
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