It stunned me, I must admit. I never knew.
As a member of the Executive Committee of the National Education Association, I got myself invited to a member conference in Lincoln, Nebraska, in 2008. I don't recall the precise title of it, nor the precise focus. But a discussion of the challenges of English as a Second Language (ESP) broke out in one of the presentations that I attended.
It was there that I learned that not only were there members having to deal with Hispanic students in South Sioux City, Nebraska--just across the Missouri River from Sioux City--but that immigrants from Somalia were working in meat-packing plants in mid-state, were sending their kids to public schools, and those kids needed help.
Somalis. In the middle of Nebraska. More than a decade ago. Who knew? Talk about a language transition. Wow.
That thought came to mind when 47, in his ever-present eloquence, referred to Somali immigrants as "garbage," with vice-president J.D. Vance pounding the table in agreement.
He continued with his generalizations that amount to racism. "These aren't people who work," he is reported to have said. "These aren't people who say, 'Let's go, come on, let's make his place great.'"
But clearly they are working at jobs others would avoid, and have been for some time now. He's unleashing another ICE round-up of immigrants in the Minneapolis-St. Paul area, not too terribly far away from Lincoln, and wants to justify it to himself as necessary.
Karoline Leavitt, ever the obedient sycophant, called those remarks an "epic moment." Well, yes. I wonder if they'll go up on whatever monument additional minions put up for 47, like the Gettysburg Address and the Second Inaugural inside the Lincoln Memorial. He said he was a better president than Lincoln, didn't he?
What he's really doing is conflating all Somalis with Ilhan Omar, one of the original "Squad" of four particularly notable female, Democratic members of Congress, back when the media made something special of them. He's obviously resented that, resented that anyone get attention outside of him, and has carried it over to include her along with others trying to make this now rather confusing country their own.
"She's garbage," he said. "Her friends are garbage." Omar happens to represent part of the Minneapolis-St. Paul area, so I'm sure he's getting ICE ginned up to do their worst. As if they needed to.
It has mystified him as to why we would accept people from "shithole countries" in Africa. I have one answer for him to contemplate: Because they're better people than you are, dummy. And, again, turning some away and deporting some more does nothing more than shout at the wind, seeing as how Somalis have been here much longer than he'd ever want to consider. He's not going to clean up anything.
Instead, it'll make us look quite the opposite than what we've been used to being. "His obsession with me is creepy," Ms. Omar said. Right again. Creeps do act creepy. And the chief creep, the biggest creep, is likely to act the creepiest.
He's truly not well. Garbage? The new, overdone, ridiculously ostentatious East Wing can't disguise the smell coming from the building.
Those Somalis working in the meat-packing plants had kids. Some of them might be married already. Some of those married might have married white people, too. And had kids. He ought to think about that while brewing his fetid stew of racist, fascist hate.
Be well. Be careful. With some luck, I'll see you down the road.
Mister Mark
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