America, where are you?

It was in shul on a very recent Shabbat that we read Parashat Ki Tavo, where it is stated that “he is cursed who moves his fellow person’s landmark.” I pondered this concept, so obviously ignored by our president, who has been known to usurp property ownership to suit his own desires. Years ago, when he was a mere multi-millionaire, after inheriting many hundreds of millions of dollars from his father’s reputedly corrupt real estate empire, his lawsuits festered in cases of eminent domain, famously battling, among others, an old woman for the attempted takeover of her small piece of Atlantic City property.

As he became more prominent and even less concerned with legalities, protected by a similarly minded illegal team, a woefully compliant Supreme Court, and a pathetic Republican majority in Congress of convenience and complicity, all willing to ignore the precepts of the Constitution and the Ten Commandments that dictate that “Thou shall not steal,” he progressed to greater and more pervasive, perversive acts, until this very day. Undoubtedly the reason his hands are reported to appear bruised is because he is always violently grabbing what does not belong to him.

I was born in 1939 and have lived through the presidencies of FDR through Trump. All of our presidents had strengths and weaknesses. They were all, after all, humans of varying intellects, goals, and dreams. And we the people had varying expectations of how they would perform. Some disappointed. Some even over-achieved. None, not a single one, could ever be fairly described as totally amoral. Even Nixon, the closest contender, committed crimes that pale in comparison. Until now.

Observing this president is like seeing a ship without a captain, afloat in an ocean with a raging incompetent behind the wheel. Every single day another shocking demand. Another alarming action. Another step away from the sanctity and dignity of our country into a maelstrom of frenzy.

Think of just a mere few of the triggers that alarm so many. The Iranian War, another endless war without American leadership or strategy. The destruction of the East Wing. The craze of the ballroom. The renaming and illegal takeover of the Kennedy Center. The false accusations of innocents in an attempt to cover the administration’s incompetence and wasteful do-over of the Reflecting Pool. The threats against Greenland and Canada. The theft of Venezuelan oil. Ad infinitum.

But what is he thinking? If he is thinking that he is earning respect by plastering his name on walls and buildings and monuments like cheap graffiti, he is desperately wrong. He has become a laughingstock, a pathetic old man with a sorrowful mop of faded yellow straw and a face concealed by pancake makeup, seeking glory in places where glory does not reside. He could be described as pitiful if he were not so completely inhumane.

If he had been a war hero, not a draft dodger, and if naming opportunities were chosen by others who eagerly wished to honor him, then so be it. But such is not the case with the man who likes to be called sir. He is a man desperate to heap homage upon himself, pleading with the world to affix his name, a name tarnished by criminality, incompetence and hatred of his fellow humans. He wants to see his visage on Mount Rushmore. He wants to be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. He seeks esteem that only his own warped ego entitles him to flaunt. Where, oh where, is his modesty? Is that a word unknown to this person? Isn’t he simply embarrassed by seeking so overtly, with no sign of humility, what others have rightfully earned? It is hard to imagine an individual yearning so desperately for undeserved praise and acclaim.

It was Plato who said, “Only those who do not seek power are qualified to hold it.” Does he not understand that his thirst for unearned rewards will be his legacy? Does he not remember Shakespeare’s immortal words that “the evil that men do lives after them”?

What is he thinking? And why do so many kneel and succumb to his will? Unanswerable questions, all of them.

I had the measles. I was 10 years old and I remember it to this day, more than 75 years later. I was miserably sick, never so sick in my life. My father, who usually spent his days working, not worrying, sat by my bedside crooning to me, “Rosie Rosie, get better.” He thought I was dying, and so did I.

It was, years later, in 1963, the year of our first child’s birth, that a vaccine was first available to mitigate that terrible disease. Naturally, we made sure all four of our kids were vaccinated with every available immunization, as soon as the protocols were available. What crazy person would think to deny their kids this incredible protection?

And then, now, came along the insidious combination of Kennedy and Trump. People are again dying from a disease that was eradicated generations ago, based upon the evil perpetrated by these two ignorant men. This is a defining of tragedy, denial of a scientifically based successful vaccine, based upon a total lack of knowledge, medical education, and common sense. Let all who voted for him reflect yet again on their abysmal choice.

The theft of another human life is the greatest theft of all, a theft that encourages, even with subtlety, the denial of life-saving vaccines that have been proven over and over again to be safe and completely effective, by a president yearning for unearned power and equipped with a comprehensive lack of sophisticated education. It is an addition to the already enormous toll of lives lost due to plots and schemes of the man who would be emperor, who seeks out ways to torment others, be they immigrants, minorities, law firms, Ivy League universities, media personalities or anyone else he perceives to stand in his way.

Alternatively, there is the story of Oskar Schindler, who saved more than 1,000 Jews during the Shoah. Among them were two who became builders, Murray Pantirer and Abraham Zuckerman. They built their lives and many housing developments in our own New Jersey, but they never forgot Schindler. In each town where they built they named a street for Schindler, recognizing that it was his selfless acts that gave them their lives and futures. If you live in Clark or West Orange or many other communities, you will find Schindler Drive or Way or Street. The builders committed to remembering the remarkable generosity of the spirit and charity of Schindler. They chose to memorialize good deeds.

Who of this generation will ever remember the good deeds and kindness of Donald Trump?

Rosanne Skopp of West Orange is a wife, mother of four, grandmother of 14, and great-grandmother of 12. She is a graduate of Rutgers University and a dual citizen of the Unit-ed States and Israel. She is a lifelong blogger, writing blogs before anyone knew what a blog was! She welcomes email at rosanne.skopp@gmail.com

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