READER LETTER | Bullying can’t make America great
In November, the US celebrates Thanksgiving Day, a national holiday. In 1863, President Abram Lincoln issued a proclamation which reads in part: “We have been recipients of the choicest bounties of heaven, we have grown in numbers, wealth and power as no other nation has over the years. But we have forgotten God.
We have forgotten the gracious hand, which preserved us in peace and multiplied, enriched and strengthened us, and we have vainly imagined, in the deceitfulness of our heart, that all these blessings were produced by some superior wisdom and virtue of our own. Intoxicated with unbroken success, we have become too self-sufficient to feel the necessity of redeeming and preserving grace, too proud to pray to the God that made us”.
Infused with the God-fearing mentality, the founders fought for the emancipation and abolition of slavery. Their policies to give aid to the needy beyond their borders were informed by the belief that their choicest bounties from heaven were meant to be shared and not hoarded.
Fast forward to 2025. Here comes Donald Trump – a petulant bully, intoxicated with power and a megalomania wearing a cap emblazoned “Make America Great Again”. You can never make your country great by throwing your weight around, bullying and humiliating those you perceive as weak and poor, while accompanied by Elon Musk, a brat blinded by wealth.
Alexius Phiri, email
