by IRENE FOWLER, Contributor

“Forever Thankful” – Irene Fowler

Whatever your preferred flavour of life is – sweet, savoury, spicy or somethin’ else, welcome to the melting pot. I am on West African time, so ‘servez-vous.’

Even though we are helpless to change things on a macro scale, we can in our own small ways, align with love and the positive. As we contribute our quota, we are building towards a critical mass which can force change/s for good.

Good morning everyone

The Thanksgiving holiday is not celebrated in the international community, albeit, with a few exceptions. The rest of the world recognizes the prominence of this traditional national holiday, therefore, as part of the brotherhood of man, I join the Thanksgiving celebrations – in spirit.

However, I do so with mixed feelings. Along with other global citizens,  I am fully cognizant of the painful and costly human toll, the Covid pandemic has taken on the world-at- large. The US leads in the number of Covid deaths, and It is incontrovertible, that under the Trump Administration, the pandemic was grossly mismanaged, solely for thuggish, political profit and advantage.

Unassailable scientific and commonsense approaches to combat the virus, were sacrificed on the profane altar of Trump’s reelection bid. Eventually, even the Covid vaccine which was developed during his presidential tenure, would suffer the same fate, as he refused to publicly promote its usefulness and efficacy. Trump sided with, and weaponized, the virus, at every turn.

Trump’s actions were a total abnegation and betrayal of the presidential oath to “serve and protect,” resulting  in tens of thousands, avoidable covid deaths. These victims will be absent from Thanksgiving festivities, and the scary, cacophonous, void in the hearts of their loved ones, will be larger and deeper. For those impacted by the tragic loss, the holiday may be less of an occasion of cheer, jubilation and feasting, but more of a season to reminisce, regret and mourn. My empathy goes out to the grief-stricken, who thusly, agonize and lament.

There is a strong case for charges of crimes against humanity, to be marshalled, against the principal architects of the orchestrated, sinister, covid response.  A light should be shone on the official actions taken by the Trump Administraton, with a goal to eliciting accountability.  This would give meaning and value to the lives that were needlessly lost, and would serve as a deterrent to future government-sanctioned, barbaric persecution.

Public officials in the US should be subject to the same rules and standards, regarding criminal conduct, as other political leaders are held to in the rest of the world. Anything else would amount to an unsustainable, fiendish hoax/farce;  a paradigm which would be inimical to geopolitical order and comity.

In July 2004 – The US House of Representatives and the Senate passed resolutions, declaring the crisis in the Dafur region of Sudan, to be genocide. An estimated 200,000 – 500,000 people were killed. These politically motivated killings, were condemned by the international community.  

“Many of those deaths were absolutely unnecessary. They happened because of decisions made by a small group of people led by Donald Trump.

Trump not only caused over 130,000 Americans to die (according to Dr. Deborah Birx’s sworn testimony before Congress last week), but there’s a pile of evidence – which I’ll lay out below – that he did it because he believed the virus was hitting Blue states and Black people the hardest.” –  Thom Hartmann

www.opednews.com/…

“Most troubling of all, perhaps, was a sentiment the expert said a member of Kushner’s team expressed: that because the virus had hit blue states hardest, a national plan was unnecessary and would not make sense politically. “The political folks believed that because it was going to be relegated to Democratic states, that they could blame those governors, and that would be an effective political strategy,” said the expert.” – Katherine Eban

www.vanityfair.com/…

Whether tyrannical leaders cause mass targeted deaths, within their respective populations, by perpetrating ethnic cleansing, or other forms of genocide, and do so by acts of commission or omission; the outcomes fall into the same category i.e. “crimes against humanity.” Widespread death does not have to be meted out publicly or savagely, to make it any less heinous or criminal. Egomania, malice, hatred, power-lust, greed and a reckless disregard for human life, are the common denominators.

The United Nations defined Genocide in 1948, in the “Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide.” – To constitute genocide, acts must be carried out with the intent to destroy an ethnic, national, racial or religious group. Such acts include ANY of the following committed in wartime or peacetime.

a. Killing members of the group.

b. Causing serious bodily or mental harm.

c. Deliberately inflicting conditions of life calculated to bring about the group’s physical destruction, in whole or in part.

Intent is central in charging or proving genocide. The International Genocide Tribunal on Rwanda found Jean-Paul Akayesu, a former mayor of a Rwandan district, guilty of genocide, because “he knew or should have known that the act committed would destroy in whole or in part, a group.”

According to the Tribunal, even if intent cannot be proved, an individual or group can still be guilty of “crimes against humanity.”

Citizens in Democratic party blue states, who align themselves with the Democratic Party, can be said to fall into or belong to a “national group.” There was a deliberate intent to deprive this group of life-saving facilities, with the full knowledge that death and serious bodily and mental harm would ensue to those infected with Covid-19. The group was deliberately inflicted with conditions that were calculated to bring about their destruction in part.

The actions of the Trump administration should be investigated to determine whether they amount to genocide or crimes against humanity.

The world waits.

My profound, heartfelt, Thanksgiving is for the true US patriots, who voted against tyrannical, autocratic rule, and took a stand for democracy and the rule of law. The Trump administration openly trafficked in egregious, anti-democratic actions of authoritarian regimes including; electoral malpractices, rampant political/economic corruption, human/civil rights abuses, vilification of the press, erosion of an independent judiciary, debasement of co-equal branches of government, unbridled lawlessness, victimisation/scapegoating of segments of the population, nepotism, cronyism, division, chaos, hate and insurrection.

Due to the election of Joe Biden as the 46th US President – by dint of which he is also the de facto leader of the free world – global democracy is still alive, albeit, on life support.

Happy Thanksgiving!

NOTE:

We are sorry to report that, because of her demanding work schedule and family obligations, this is Irene’s last regular Thursday post, but she has a standing invitation to write for Flowers for Socrates whenever time permits. Thank you Irene for everything you do – may you go from strength to strength.