DAYENU (ENOUGH)
- Karen Levi
- May 6
- 3 min read
Updated: May 7
Everyday, one half of the United States population is bombarded with potentially deadly strikes of the executive order type. The other half takes the hits with a smile of satisfaction. Destructive, dangerous, deadly, when one realizes that life saving studies are being cancelled; we have an HHS director who does not believe in germ theory; budget cuts to artistic and historical institutions continue; and a denial of basic science underlies decisions.
These strikes target specific ethnic groups most severely which smacks of Nazism or at least racial discrimination. The elimination of due process rights to undocumented immigrants of Hispanic origin and those who speak out against Israel can only be viewed as a harmful development. The Department of Homeland Security has no intention of capturing white individuals of European descent whose working or student visas have expired. On the contrary, the leader of the free world has invited white South Africans to live here, ostensibly due to harsh living conditions since apartheid was abolished.
Recently, two executive orders punched me in the gut. The president issued an executive order instructing the Corporation for Public Broadcasting to halt all direct taxpayer dollars to PBS and NPR.
Not only is the Trump regime controlling media but preventing local public radio and t.v. stations from broadcasting in urban and rural areas which are in dire need of increased public information. These stations are essentially free, in contrast to the cable networks which require paid memberships. These networks provide music, art, children's, historical, theatrical entertainment, and political information to those who cannot afford to pay increasingly higher membership fees to streaming services. That is exactly what Trump and his cronies want. Lack of information is a hallmark of an authoritarian government.
The dismissal of most of the Board of Directors of the Kennedy Performing Arts Center hit me hard. Much of art presents an alternative approach to the status quo. Music, dance, and theatre challenge patrons to view and listen to new ideas or musical compositions. Often, unpopular or strident messages are communicated in plays. Attendees are forced to think when they attend performances. No thinking allowed in a dictatorship or any anti fascist agendas.
Over the weekend, Trump fired all the Biden appointees of the Board of Trustees to the U.S. Holocaust Museum. I mistakingly thought this was a sacrosanct institution. Technically, the museum is a joint federal government and private non profit organization. The well known center for research and public exhibit space is funded by government grants and private donations.
The new appointees are from the right wing--two conservative media personalities, one of Trump's lawyers, a real estate developer, and various and sundry allies of the president. Any Jewish person who believes Trump supports Jewish causes and the state of Israel is fooling themselves. The news has bore that out.
Remember the deal to develop Gaza as a luxury resort? Does not sound like a peace treaty to me. Threatening universities in the name of antisemitism can only end badly. One small step farther, and Americans will blame the Jewish people for Trump's interference in the functioning and free speech rights of schools for higher education. Pitting Jewish and Palestinian students and teachers against one another is hardly a road to peace and understanding, nor is using anti Israel protests as a means for curbing free speech. In general, hatred toward one group easily morphs into hostility for another. History has proven this to be so.
©Karen Levi 2025
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