Christopher Guérin

My father, Col. John W. Guerin, M.D., spent four years commanding a mobile army hospital in New Guinea during World War II. He earned a Bronze Star for bravery in the face of the enemy. He also lost his teeth to malnutrition and other illnesses. He spent the next 20 years as a full colonel commanding Air Force base hospitals. Trump called him and millions of soldiers (and by extension those fighting Iran) “losers.” But that wouldn’t have angered my father.

Our nation has been betrayed. I won’t waste words on “traitor” versus “betrayer,” though they don’t mean exactly the same thing. It’s more a question of how what’s happening makes one feel. I feel betrayed by a president who has attacked, dismantled and destroyed many of the things that I’ve always believed were essential to our freedom, health, dignity, safety and the rule of law. Regardless of the politics of each president going back to my childhood, they all seemed to respect these things, too.

MAGA good. Migrant bad. That about sums up where much of this nation’s leadership is right now. I just finished reading “The Third Reich at War” by Richard Evans and found it scarily prescient. The treatment of Jews in 1940, their rounding up and deportation, is reminiscent of how migrants are being treated today. Instead of being forced to wear a yellow star, migrants are assailed for the color of their skin.