Why is Trump Fighting so Hard to Keep an Innocent Man in an El Salvador Prison? & The Hate Crime that is the GOP Campaign to Erase Blacks and Women from History
April 11, 2025
What I’m Discussing Today:
Kareem’s Daily Quote: What if “Bridge Over Troubled Water” was our national anthem? Is that crazier than the Gulf of America or our wacky tariff policy?
DOJ attorney placed on leave after expressing frustration in court with government over mistakenly deported man: Even the government’s own attorney couldn’t understand why this innocent man was deported or why they refuse to fight to bring him back.
Drug dealer whose sentence was commuted by Trump is charged with violating his release: Trump releases convicted dope dealers onto the streets but then punishes Canada because less than 50 pounds of fentanyl got through the northern border.
Trump Orders Four Mile Military Parade for His 79th Birthday: Nothing says “wannabe dictator” more than a military parade, especially after calling dead soldiers “losers” and “suckers.”
Amid anti-DEI push, National Park Service rewrites history of Underground Railroad: The whitewashing of history to diminish the contributions of Blacks, women, and other marginalized people is in full swing. How is that America?
What I’m Watching: Love on the Spectrum will make you see love in a new light. The Studio will make you laugh and cringe. The Bondsman is just plain fun.
Kareem’s Video Break: A tiger and a dog get playful, and it’s endearing.
Kareem’s Sports Moments: I studied martial arts with Bruce Lee, so it takes a lot to impress me. This was impressive.
Phil Ochs Sings “When I'm Gone”: He was the voice of social protest in the sixties and seventies. We sure could use him now.
Kareem’s Daily Quote
When you’re weary, feeling small,
When tears are in your eyes
I will dry them all
I’m on your side
When times get rough
And friends just can’t be found
Like a bridge over troubled water
I will lay me down
Paul Simon, from “Bridge Over Troubled Water”
I was playing Simon & Garfunkel’s “Bridge Over Troubled Water” (1970) the other day, and as I listened to the lyrics, a radical thought entered my mind: Maybe that song should be our national anthem. Hear me out before you skip ahead or turn me in for deportation.
For me, the “I” in the song represents our country, not as saber-rattling threats to foreign powers, but as a compassionate protector of all its people. “When you’re weary, feeling small,/When tears are in your eyes/I will dry them all” echoes the Emma Lazarus (1849-1887) sonnet inscribed in the pedestal of the Statue of Liberty:
“Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!”
This callback is especially poignant because Lazarus was a Jewish-American descendant of immigrants who came here around the time of the American Revolution. It symbolizes America as a haven for religious freedom. Or at least we strive to be.
I also like that the song showcases its gospel influence from singer Claude Jeter's line “I'll be your bridge over deep water if you trust in my name,” which Jeter sang with his group, the Swan Silvertones, in the 1959 song “Mary Don't You Weep.” Also, Johann Sebastian Bach's “O Sacred Head, Now Wounded” inspired parts of the melody. Infusing America’s Christian heritage through Bach and Black Americans celebrates our diversity.
To add to its patriotic gravitas, during the country’s prolonged grieving in the aftermath of the 9/11 devastation, “Bridge Over Troubled Water” was played constantly and featured in tributes of those we lost to help us heal. There certainly is a healing quality to the soothing melody, the grace in the lyrics, and Garfunkel’s choirboy voice.
Forget the war images of “the bombs bursting in air” and the fluttering flag through the smoke. Those images focus on the battle for independence, not what that independence means. Victory at war is only the beginning of the struggle. The even harder task lies ahead: shaping and maintaining a country worthy of that victory and honoring the sacrifices made.
For many people, idolizing the flag is a way of avoiding standing up for the principles the country was founded on. The flag is a symbol of the U.S. Constitution which expresses both the words and the spirit of this country. So many who claim they love the flag don’t really love the Constitution (at least, not enough to read it). The same people who would be outraged at someone publicly burning a flag, support a president who openly is systematically stripping Americans’ constitutional rights by attacking the judiciary, punishing anyone who uses free speech to criticize him, and issuing orders that make it harder for his opponents to vote. You are not patriots, you are the enemy within that doesn’t even realize your useful idiot role.
Seeing politicians wearing American flag pins on their lapels is sometimes infuriating because some of these people are actively destroying what we all claim to love about this melting pot of a country. They are like a Christian wearing a pin with an upside-down cross inside a pentagram, or an Orthodox Jew or Muslim wearing a bacon necktie. While it’s true that both sides say the other hates America, only one side can actually prove it with facts. The other is just braying.
Okay, I know that “Bridge Over Troubled Water” will never become our national anthem, but when I hear the hopeful lyrics at the end, I can dream, can’t I?
All your dreams are on their way
See how they shine
If you need a friend
I’m sailing right behind
Like a bridge over troubled water
I will ease your mind
Now that’s a country that cares for its people and their dreams. That’s a country I can love—and that loves me back.