That is, until Donald Trump entered our lives and thumbed his nose at our Constitution, emasculated our system of checks and balances, and threatened to turn our country into a banana republic with him as the head banana. And yet, until now I’ve never had the feeling that the America I was born and raised in, the America that has given me the opportunity to thrive, the America I love even despite its profound flaws of racism and inequality, is in danger of losing its grand experiment in democracy. I’ve sometimes objected strongly to the policies of our government. This strict adherence to sound guidelines has made it possible for Taipei to thrive artistically. Distinguished musicians from all over the world arrived in Taipei for the Festival and were immediately quarantined for fourteen days in their hotel rooms before being allowed to participate. This has allowed Cho-Liang Lin’s Taipei Music Academy and Festival to take place without the deadly virus in attendance. Throughout the course of the pandemic, there have been to date a total of seven deaths in Taiwan and less than 500 infections. The country has had a plan in place for years that involved among other things quarantines, contact tracing, and wide availability of masks. Taiwan, for example, is a global leader in fighting Covid-19. As a result, the magic of live music for both performers and their listeners is suddenly a thing of the past, and my colleagues in large part have been deprived of their very livelihood as music venues right and left are cancelled. The virus has subsequently brought America to its knees, and with no end in sight. Trump dithered, lied, and even obstructed scientists from doing their job.
Republicans, have you no shame.Īnd then, the Covid-19 virus made its ominous arrival on our shores.
In America, however, if you criticize Trump, he might merely honor you with a twitter tongue lashing, or worst still, you could be voted out of office. In Nazi Germany, criticizing Hitler unquestionably meant jail or death. Since then, no matter how incompetent, ignorant, racist, unethical, mean spirited, self serving, or illegal Trump’s actions have been, almost all members of his Republican Party whimper in fetal position, too scared to even open their mouths in response. That Republicans nominated him as a candidate was shocking enough, but the fact that so many Americans had voted for a man deeply unfit for the presidency was incomprehensible. The night that Donald Trump was elected president of the United States, I couldn’t sleep. Music in the Time of Trump October 1, 2020
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