PERSPECTIVE FROM THE 19^TH HOLE: This is the title I chose for my personal blog, which is meant to give me an outlet for one of my favorite crafts – writing – plus to use an image from my favorite sport, golf. Out of college, my first job was as a reporter for the Daily Astorian in Astoria, Oregon, and I went on from there to practice writing in all of my professional positions, including as press secretary in Washington, D.C. for a Democrat Congressman from Oregon, as an Oregon state government manager in Salem and Portland, as press secretary for Oregon’s last Republican governor (Vic Atiyeh), and as a private sector lobbyist. This blog also allows me to link another favorite pastime – politics and the art of developing public policy – to what I write.

The question in the headline resonated for me yesterday on July 4^th, a national holiday worth celebrating each year.

President Donald Trump, of course, has made the holiday into a celebration of his own worth, not America’s. So, at least for now, forget Trump, which is one of the highest acts of citizenship in this country, even though news reports from the Nation’s Capitol suggested that, in his formal remarks, Trump stuck to a patriotic script.

For me, America means something more elegant that a military exhibition:

• Freedom to work and produce.
• Freedom to live in an open society.
• Freedom to express religious convictions without fear or reprisal.
• Freedom to work together with neighbors, the community, the church and others institutions for the common good (though, for this point, I’ll leave politics off the list as elected officials continue to practice the “art” of division, not inclusion)
• Freedom to speak and be creative. [On this issue, I remember a poignant comment made by out tour guide in Prague recently. With the fall of communism in the Czech Republic, she said she relished the new freedom to think and be creative for herself, not some monolithic, central state.]

All of these freedoms are under attack in the today’s political system.

On the right – if that is really where Trump is — he wants acquiescence and worship from all citizens because he, of course, is great and will lead America to be great again…a phrase that often reminds me of Adolph Hitler’s Germany after World War I and leading to World War II, including the Hitler-led atrocities which tried to exterminate an entire race of people – the Jews – from the face of the earth. Trump’s approach to immigrants strikes, unfortunately, a similar chord.

Let me insert a quick point on immigration. My family on both sides comes from immigrants who came to America for a better life. My wife’s parents, when they were young children, emigrated from Scotland and we still honor that heritage.

On my side, my grandparents came from Norway to settle in Minnesota and, in that case, too, we honor the heritage.

Just think of what immigrants have done for our country over the years. Of course, we need a better system for allowing them to enter this country legally, but instead of developing that gateway, our “leaders,” especially Trump, denigrate all immigrants as “criminals,” or, if they recognize the reality the concentration camp-like holding centers, don’t develop the wherewithal to develop a better system.

On the general issue of the political system challenging our freedoms, the left is no better than the right. From Senators Bernie Sanders to Elizabeth Warren, the left wants to make America into a socialist country. No more freedoms. Just salute the federal government as the provider of all things free – college, health care and a so-called “green economy.”

As both sides yell at the other, with no middle ground, I worry about the future of America as a democracy.

So, on this July 4^th holiday weekend, it is worthwhile to reflect on the values of this country, which ought to be nurtured, not destroyed by Trump and those on the left.