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Saturday
I’m so appalled by what I saw yesterday in the White House, with Donald Trump and J.D. Vance throwing their lot in with Vladimir Putin as they ambushed and bullied Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky, that I’ve written a special Saturday post. What comes to mind is Oliver Wendell Holmes’s 1830 poem “Old Ironsides.”
The poem was written to save the historic ship U.S.S. Constitution, which was destined for the scrap heap after once having played key roles in both the American Revolution and the War of 1812. The poem generated such support for the ship that it was preserved, and you can still visit it today in Boston.
The actual Constitution is under all-out assault today, as is America’s long-standing position as leader of the free world. I am well aware that the U.S. hasn’t always deserved that moniker—after all, I got arrested in 1971 protesting the Vietnam War—but never has America sided so openly with a dictator against a freedom movement. Trump is desecrating our most cherished ideals.
He and Vance are indeed harpies of the shore, trying to take down an eagle of the sea.
Old Ironsides
Ay, tear her tattered ensign down!
Long has it waved on high,
And many an eye has danced to see
That banner in the sky;
Beneath it rung the battle shout,
And burst the cannon’s roar;—
The meteor of the ocean air
Shall sweep the clouds no more.Her deck, once red with heroes’ blood,
Where knelt the vanquished foe,
When winds were hurrying o’er the flood,
And waves were white below,
No more shall feel the victor’s tread,
Or know the conquered knee;—
The harpies of the shore shall pluck
The eagle of the sea!Oh, better that her shattered hulk
Should sink beneath the wave;
Her thunders shook the mighty deep,
And there should be her grave;
Nail to the mast her holy flag,
Set every threadbare sail,
And give her to the god of storms,
The lightning and the gale!
As Trump attempts to tear down the tattered ensign of freedom—both ours and Ukraine’s—we must defend our core ideals, just as people once defended Old Ironsides. Blood has been shed so that the eagle could soar, and the least we can do today—in whatever ways we can—is resist Trump’s fascist takeover. At stake, here and abroad, is government of the people, by the people, and for the people.
