I was going to write about the president repeatedly confusing the name of a missile with a toothbrush, saying a ‘hydrosonic’ missile was in the works. But, what I was hearing on a Saturday morning cooking show preempted the president, who seemed to be confusing ‘hydrosonic’ missiles with hypersonic missiles, that, reportedly, can fly some five times faster than the speed of sound.
An actress, stopping by the cooking show to demonstrate her culinary skills, had said “My mother was Polish.” One of the chefs in the cast of the show then talked about his Italian folks. The cooking show, by the way, was featuring ethnic dishes.
That got me thinking about all the people, here in America, who hail from somewhere else.
You know those ads, with companies urging us to check out our ancestors? I grew up in the Midwest, but my ancestors, back in their day, hailed from somewhere else on Planet Earth. You have to wonder if government officials, who are all worked up about migrants coming to America, have checked their family trees.
The president, himself, has he done that? And others in government? White House Press Secretary Kaleigh McEnany, for example, Senior Advisor Stephen Miller, Chief of Staff Mark Meadows and another Stephen — Stephen Bannon — who used to be in the president’s orbit? Have they looked into their distant past? What about others? Senate Leader Mitch McConnell and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, to name a few more officials? Are their ancestors from these parts, originally?
I almost forgot to mention Trump campaign spokesman Tim Murtaugh, who repeated, the other day, what the president has been suggesting, that some migrant families separated by the administration at the U.S. border have not been reunited, because some of the parents do not want their children back. I was thinking about that when I heard Sister Norma Pimentel suggest, as I recall, that such an assertion was incorrect. Sister Pimentel is a member of the Missionaries of Jesus, and one of Time Magazine’s 100 most influential people of 2020.
Unless way back when, a really long time ago, the ancestors of President Trump and others in government, mentioned here, and the ancestors of many everyday ‘Americans,’ as well, were Native Americans, can anyone, truly, lay claim to being an American?
Looking way back, what if we’re all about the same as migrants yearning, now, to be in America?
Harvey Radin is former senior vice president in charge of corporate communications and media relations, Bank of America Western Region. He makes his home in Redwood City, CA.