Hate looms, with local backing

Digging proceeds on long-awaited downtown project

A reader calling herself “Deb” commented last week on my column, in which I mentioned Trump’s mocking of a disabled reporter. I can’t find her comment on our site now but managed to find it in my email, where comments are forwarded. 

Here it is:

 “Trump was unaware the NY Times reporter had a disability. It is irrelevant and just something leftists ran with and twisted as an opportunity to bash Trump. What he was mocking was the groveling reporters on the left do. Trump did not need to be mentioned in this article about Bella. A leftist took an opportunity to bash Trump. I am not here to put up with liberals. It’s the reason I stopped paying for the Post-Star. Trump did an excellent job as president and is supported by millions of people. He is currently supported by half the country. If this is going to be a radical left wing site, I will not pay a dime. Strike one. Keep doing it and many subscribers will leave.”

I wonder what she means by “here” in the sentence, “I am not here to put up with liberals.”

Here on Earth? 

The only reason she would be on our Substack site is because she chose to be. But I’m glad she found her way to it and read the column and glad she complained about what she disliked. God forbid I start writing columns that no one dislikes!

It might seem funny that Deb threatens not to pay a dime, considering we don’t charge for this newsletter — at least, not yet — but I take seriously her threat to unsubscribe. Readers are valuable to me.

She’s right that Trump did not need to be mentioned in an article about my wife and me and our interactions with people in and around Glens Falls. I’ve written many columns about the two of us and our kids and dogs and family and friends and friendly strangers without mentioning Trump.

But he appeared in last week’s column because his presence in our lives has been growing, not by our choice but because of our fear he will be reelected. It’s as if his glowering face is taking shape on the walls of our house, pixel by pixel.

Here is what Trump said last week in an online post and repeated in a Veterans Day speech in New Hampshire:

“In honor of our great Veterans on Veteran’s Day, we pledge to you that we will root out the Communists, Marxists, Fascists, and Radical Left Thugs that lie like vermin within the confines of our Country, lie, steal and cheat on Elections, and will do anything possible, whether legally or illegally, to destroy America and the American Dream.”

And here is what he said about immigrants in a video interview with a news site called The National Pulse:

“Nobody has ever seen anything like we’re witnessing right now. It is a very sad thing for our country. It’s poisoning the blood of our country. It’s so bad, and people are coming in with disease. People are coming in with every possible thing that you could have.”

Promising to root out people you refer to as “vermin” and saying that immigrants are “poisoning the blood of our country” comes straight out of Hitler’s repertoire, as many historians, Jewish leaders and other appalled and frightened people have pointed out since Trump made the remarks.

It’s not only his undermining of our critical institutions or scapegoating of immigrants that makes Trump a danger like no other. It’s his creation of an atmosphere in which previously unthinkable acts, such as rounding up millions of longtime residents and holding them in deportation camps, are becoming plausible.

None of the acts of “retribution” Trump is calling for will happen without the support of people like Deb.

She is not here to put up with liberals, she says.

But I am afraid she would be here for rooting them out like vermin.

Wanderings

Workers stand in the hole they’ve dug Friday at the downtown revitalization project site on South Street in Glens Falls.

Work continues on the South Street downtown revitalization project that is so desperately needed but has been so frequently delayed. A big almond-shaped hole has been dug and on Friday was littered with wooden forms in several sizes. It was in the 60s on Friday, but I have to wonder how long construction can continue as the temperature falls. Is a year-round outdoor construction season a side benefit of global warming?

Rachael Rhianna works on a trompe l’oeil painting on the side of the building at the corner of South Street and New Pruyn, just a couple of blocks away from the downtown revitalization site.

I noticed someone new working on the troupe l’oeil paintings at 95 South St., on the corner with New Pruyn, continuing work started by muralist and painter Esmond Lyons. Rachael Rhianna said she had been hired by the owner to do more work on the building, which looks so much better and more interesting now than when it was just white with brown trim. Rhianna is an artist who lives in Queensbury and runs a shop in the Shirt Factory called Cre8ivologist, where she sells her paintings and jewelry.

Since I get up early to write and my home office is on the east side of our house, I often get to see the sunrise, as I did on Friday. I read a piece once about the way power and phone lines affect our view of scenes like this one. I forget what it said, but there’s no doubt they have an effect.