OPINION:
Meryl Streep generated huge laughs from the assembled Golden Globe Award audience with her swipe at then-President-elect Donald Trump. Are we going to restore “civility, truth and kindness” to our culture by attacking her?
The Jewish scripture on which our country was founded exhorts us to “never return evil for evil” (in this case insult for insult), that “love barely notices when others do wrong” and to “pray for those that persecute you.”
Her comment gives all of us the opportunity to call upon these verses. Let’s work to understand what motivates her thinking and to provide an opportunity for her followers to better understand us 63 million “deplorables.”
First, regarding DJT’s “dislike of foreigners.”
We cannot, absolutely cannot let Melania get wind of this.
Why characterize him as a bigoted, narrow-minded leader only wanting to champion the cause of us White Guys? Maybe Ms. Streep never heard about his admitting to membership for the first time blacks and Jews when he reopened his Florida Mar-a-Lago club?
Racists don’t do this.
Or maybe she listened to the press coverage of the Paul Ryan and Mitt Romney comments when they said he “offended Mexican Americans.” Ms. Streep may not have picked up how they were misled by the La Raza folks who said: “His comment that Mexico only sends rapists and criminals to the United States reveals a racist nature that cannot and will not go unnoticed by the Hispanic National Bar Association nor the Latino community.”
Mr. Trump’s statement clearly included, which these self-appointed representatives of the Hispanic community purposely perverted, “and I assume some good people as well.
Samson Dunn, a pastor of 1,500 Hispanics in Phoenix’s Maryvale community, asks Mr. Ryan and Mr. Romney in a Daily Caller op-ed, who are these offended Hispanics?
“The hardworking Mexican-Americans I work alongside in the most crime ridden and impoverished communities in Phoenix are not insulted. They understand exactly who Mr. Trump was referring to. He was referring to the individuals that come into the country illegally and devastate many Hispanic communities.”
Perhaps Ms. Streep did not read the op-ed of former U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, a Hispanic, who acknowledged Mr. Trump could be justified in his concern of bias. Why? Judge Gonzalo Curiel is an Obama appointee. He assigned a class-action lawsuit against Trump University to the Robbins Geller Rudman & Dowd law firm, which gave the Clintons $675,000 in speaking fees.
Judge Curiel joined the San Diego La Raza Lawyers Association. Ms. Streep will know La Raza is Spanish for “The Race” but must have forgotten one of the key aims of La Raza was reuniting back to Mexico all the land in the Southwest that America had “stolen.” They call it Aztalan. Had Judge Curial simply joined the San Diego Lawyers’ Association with lawyers of other family backgrounds rather than the La Raza association, the presumption of bias would be lessened.
Ms. Streep may surely be forgiven for not knowing that a law passed in 1952 provided for classes of people to be excluded from entering the United States and that President Jimmy Carter not only denied visas but revoked visas and sent home many Iranians.
Khizr Kahn, whose law firm specialized in helping Muslims immigrate to the United States, vilified Mr. Trump during the Democratic National Convention for articulating a policy implemented by a Democratic president years earlier.
Can Ms. Streep perceive why we “deplorables” possess concerns of a biased press? Daily, we see a bias not by what is reported but a bias by what it does not report.
We all heard prominent commentators in the press state that we have become a banana republic whereby winners jail their opponents. When Mr. Trump said of Hillary Clinton, “She would be in jail,” we “deplorables” clearly understood he meant that were there a fair and just legal process in place, she would be in jail, not that he would put her in jail.
Few reasonable people could be convinced Bill Clinton and Attorney General Loretta E. Lynch only discussed golf and grandchildren on that chance meeting on a Phoenix tarmac.
All of this is to say, in the name of civility, truth and kindness, let’s cut Ms. Streep a break. While I have never met her, she seems sincere, kind and gifted with extraordinary talent.
She, like most of her political persuasion, is not evil or stupid, but just very misinformed. We should not despise our Hollywood critics but civilly share information that doesn’t penetrate the bubble in which they operate.
Ms. Streep, I encourage you to gain additional insight into the kind and giving spirit of Donald Trump by googling the video of black female employee Lynne Patton. Have a Philippians 4:8 sort of a day.
• Foster Friess founded Friess Associates, which grew to $15 billion in assets. He now promotes “Return to Civility” efforts.
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