One of the problems with our wannabe Orange Oligarch is where one starts to address a plethora of issues of our emotionally challenged leader. Before I try to address our inane Orange President, let me present a personal backstory.

Several years ago, I was so upset with racism in America that I apologized to the medical people in my life who have helped me stay healthy on my journey down the yellow brick road of life. I told each one of them that I am a WASP (White Anglo-Saxon Protestant) in name only. I had about a dozen doctors then: four Asians, one black, two Middle Eastern, and two Hispanic doctors. All the rest were white. However, I also apologized to my dermatologist, who is white but is a female. I don’t see any difference between racism and sexism. With both -isms, one's place in the world is based upon one’s birth. The apologies were my mea culpa.

Many WASPs see themselves as superior to those who aren’t clones of them. I said to those doctors I could never fully grasp their suffering, but at least I will do what I can to fight against racism, xenophobia, and sexism.

In my previous essay, I mentioned going to St. Mary’s Hospital two decades ago with a subdural hematoma, which is bleeding in the brain. The doctor who saved my life was a Muslim. I was a patient at the U. of Chicago Hospital that same year. I had my prostate removed, but the cancer had gotten outside the prostate. My oncologist had me take two months of daily radiation, which saved my life. He was ethnically Chinese.

Those two near-death encounters changed my Weltanschauung. In addition to my two dances, my family moved to Mt. Lebanon, which is located in the South Hills of metropolitan Pittsburgh, PA, just before I started junior high school. I mistakenly learned while attending Mt. Lebanon that I was both dumb and poor. That feeling motivated me to prove to myself that I was neither. That is the same type of drive that my two dances gave me.

I attended Muskingum College from 1961-65, which was a time when whites began to grasp the civil rights movement. Nearly seven decades later, it’s like “déjà vu all over again.” It isn’t about George Wallace, James Eastland, Woodrow Wilson, Orval Faubus, Lester Maddox, or William Fullbright, who promoted racism in 2025; it is our Orange President.

Trump's tan through the ages: 2002, 2004, 2005, 2014 Zuma Press

In that article, I mentioned reading an essay from Mother Jones. It began with this paragraph. “Why is Donald Trump so orange? This has been one of the mysteries of the 2016 presidential campaign. The internet is full of speculation, but the consensus is that Trump is an aficionado of bad spray tans or the tanning booth. (The white goggle lines are a dead giveaway.) He hasn’t always been this shade. Fifteen years ago, Trump’s pallor was almost normal.”

Our Orange President has issues with all groups, racially, religiously, ethnically, or financially, unless they are white. Trump came up with a new idea, the Gold Card. People who could afford $5 million could come to America and get fast-tracked to citizenship. Someone asked Trump at the press conference whether Russians could acquire a Gold Card. He replied, “Hey, I know some Russian oligarchs that are very nice people...They are not as wealthy as they used to be; I think they can afford $5 million.”

Former President Biden warned about Russian oligarchs in the States creating a situation that threatens our country and democracy. Trump is now encouraging them to come to America. Whatever happened to our Statue of Liberty?

Lady Liberty

Emma Lazarus wrote a sonnet about the Statue of Liberty entitled The New Colossus. This is the last stanza.

I have taught various college classes in the humanities. At the beginning of each semester, the first thing that I did was look at my student's roster. I was delighted if I couldn’t pronounce most of their names. It assured me the class would learn more when it wasn’t a homogenized group. Diversity is a great teaching tool.

Trump is attempting to reshape our American democracy into who he is. That will affect everyone.

I know; he maintains he is innocent.

The new statue

One central issue that Trump wants to stop is DEI initiatives (Diversity, Equality, and Inclusion). He wants to return to the time before the civil rights movement. At a press conference a month ago, Trump blamed DEI initiatives at the FAA for the crash of a plane and helicopter. When asked about the investigation still underway looking into the cause, a reporter asked him how he knew something still under investigation; Trump said, “...because I have common sense, okay?”