The proclamations used to land in my inbox like clockwork — the remembrances of holidays and landmarks, the celebrations of awareness months, the noting of anniversaries both celebratory and tragic. All bearing the president’s name.
It was probably someone’s job, making sure those days and weeks and months did not slip by a busy head of state, whichever person or party happened to occupy the White House.
Though it was “pro forma” and a bit corny, it was also somehow comforting, a sign that the country’s leaders knew that remembering together is something that makes America, America, especially when those memories reflect dark times defeated by hard work, sacrifice and the principles enshrined in founding documents.
Even marking shared tragedy can bring a country together.
Just think of President George W. Bush’s care to caution Americans after 9/11 that “the face of terror is not the true faith of Islam. … Islam is peace.”
Earlier this year, 30 years after his presidential cooperation with state and local officials set an example in the wake of the devastating Oklahoma City bombing, Bill Clinton used the sad anniversary to praise the government workers targeted that day and so often vilified today. “What they did every day was a matter of choice, showing up for work, to do business for the American people.”
After the elementary school shooting in Newtown, Conn., President Barack Obama said that “while nothing can fill the space of a lost child or loved one, all of us can extend a hand to those in need — to remind them that we are there for them, that we are praying for them, that the love they felt for those they lost endures not just in their memories but also in ours.”
It was heartening to see Donald Trump express empathy for those caught in the Texas floodwaters, among them children enjoying summer camp. “These families are enduring an unimaginable tragedy, with many lives lost, and many still missing,” he wrote on Truth Social. “God bless Texas!”
But you could not blame other Americans in other states for believing the president’s blessings stopped at the Texas border. Maybe the doubters heard the president’s Fourth of July message, not exactly a sign of unity.
Trump was celebrating the signing of a mega MAGA tax-and-spend bill, one that barely passed both houses of Congress, and then only after horse-trading and carveouts and a reported statement by GOP Sen. Mitch McConnell of Kentucky that voters hurt by Medicaid cuts would “get over it.” (He was talking about folks who abused the system, McConnell’s office later clarified.)
The president was crystal clear in his statements at a “Salute to America” event last Thursday in Iowa, condemning Democrats — and presumably the millions of Americans they represent — who did not vote “yes.”
It was “only because they hate Trump,” he said. “But I hate them, too. You know that? I really do; I hate them. I cannot stand them, because I really believe they hate our country, you want to know the truth,” the president told the crowd, to cheers.
Who would talk about “hate” more than any other emotion available to humanity and use it to insult half the citizens of the country he leads?
Perhaps someone who refers to himself in the third person.
Federal holidays seem to bring out the worst in Donald Trump. This is, after all, the man who called opponents “Radical Left Lunatics” for Christmas 2024.
Just last month, the White House issued no official statement celebrating Juneteenth, which commemorates June 19, 1865, when Union soldiers brought the news of emancipation to Galveston, Texas, more than two years after President Abraham Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation.
Instead, Trump chose the day to complain about “too many non-working holidays.”
It was quite a switch from Trump’s first-term message, in 2018, that the Galveston story honors “the unbreakable spirit and countless contributions of generations of African Americans to the story of American greatness.”
He certainly knew the all-American words back then.
I don’t know if he meant them, but just going through the motions took effort I’m sure many Americans appreciated.
Now he and his administration don’t bother to pretend, as their policies work overtime to erase America’s diverse and uplifting history.
Just two days before Juneteenth came a 10-year-anniversary, the kind presidents used to note as a matter of course. But there was silence from Trump.
It looked to a horrific event, and the aftermath that demonstrated how a country, when asked, could collectively pause, mourn and move forward.
On June 17, 2015, a 21-year-old racist killed nine parishioners who had prayed with him at Emanuel AME Church in Charleston, S.C.; he was fueled by resentments and nurtured by an ecosystem that used minorities, immigrants, “the other” as scapegoats for personal shortcomings.
In reaction, a Republican governor, Nikki Haley, and a bipartisan group of lawmakers accomplished what had been impossible: A Confederate flag like one that had inspired the killer was removed from the South Carolina statehouse grounds.
That Haley, when later taking a run at the 2024 presidential nomination in Trump’s GOP, stumbled over identifying slavery as the cause of the Civil War only shows that politicians of very different beliefs can occasionally find one thing that unites them and all Americans with a sense of right and wrong.
Charlotte, N.C., Council Member Malcolm Graham, a younger brother of Cynthia Graham Hurd — a librarian, community leader and stellar big sister among those murdered 10 years ago — has written a book with a title that shows that amid heartbreaking grief, he has hope.
In “The Way Forward: Keeping the Faith and Doing the Work Amid Hatred and Violence,” Graham offers his thoughts on how Americans have it in them to make the country truly great. It’s not an easy path, but it’s one that may be necessary.
Just don’t count on any help from the top.
At a time when whether you get respect, rights or a kind word depends on your identity, politics and, apparently, willingness to be mean-spirited, the president has made it clear that even on days that should unify all Americans, he’s not up to the job.
Mary C. Curtis has worked at The New York Times, The Baltimore Sun, The Charlotte Observer, as national correspondent for Politics Daily, and is a senior facilitator with The OpEd Project. She is host of the CQ Roll Call “Equal Time with Mary C. Curtis” podcast. Follow her on X @mcurtisnc3.
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