A lack of empathy on parade

I don't know what makes some people have empathy and how it sails right over the heads of others. To me, it's a natural thing to try to imagine what the world is like from the other guy's shoes. It wasn't something I had to train myself to do, not a "soft skill" I had to pick up at a management training seminar. It was in the dog-eared pages of books in my elementary library in Cleveland where I grew up. It was in the there in the words of Anne Frank, and the stories of the slave trade and the Jim Crow South, the Trail of Tears and the immigrants at Ellis Island, the migrant farmers of the Depression. Different times, different struggles, but all of them were shot through with the same theme: people that were despised, sometimes hunted, often living in fear. The groups changed, but the bullies rarely did. That's the thing about bullies. They count on relentless fear to drive you down, to make you quit resisting, so they can keep you pliant. In Los Angeles this week the Marines and the National Guard were brought in to face off against their fellow Americans, even though the governor and the mayor have repeatedly said there is no need for the troops. Meanwhile across the country in our nation's capital, a convicted felon who has made jokes of how often he dodged the draft, who reportedly called soldiers "suckers and losers," and mocked Republican U.S. Sen. John McCain for being a POW, is throwing an "unforgettable" military parade today. It's technically a celebration of the U.S. Army's 250th birthday, although given his well-known ambivalence to the military, I think it has a lot more to do with it being his birthday. Ever the showman but not a statesman, President Donald Trump knows how to cash in on a flashy spectacle and what better way to show off the props he's been handed as commander in chief? He's treated himself to the Golden Knights, 6,700 soldiers, 50 helicopters, 34 horses, 28 tanks, 150 vehicles and seven marching bands. The spectacle is estimated to cost between $25 to $45 million, NPR quoted Army spokesperson Heather J. Hagan as saying. Part of that cost includes millions to repair the streets of Washington, D.C., from the damage that might be caused by tanks and armored vehicles. Trump was thwarted from having a parade the first time he was in office, when costs were estimated to be too high. Trump blamed local government — the D.C. mayor's office estimated police costs alone would have run at least $13 million — accusing them of overcharging the federal government, for spoiling his parade. I wonder what that $45 million could pay towards veterans health insurance. I wonder if anyone thought it could help the one in four veterans who rely on Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits, or the lifesaving cancer research, that are all on the chopping block in the "Big Beautiful Bill"? There's a difference between seeing people as backdrops and as equals. That's the difference between leaders who serve their people and their nation and those who serve themselves. It's this kind of craven indifference that fuels the nationwide No Kings protests that are planned nationwide for today. Seeing ICE agents tear through local neighborhoods, show up at elementary school graduations, at Home Depots, snatching both documented and undocumented immigrants alike — and even in several cases, American citizens who happen to be Latino — and disappearing them to who knows where to be terrorized is being met with a rising wave of resistance. Americans are saying enough is enough, and pushing back on an administration they believe is tipping far into the realm of authoritarianism. On Thursday, U.S. Sen. Alex Padilla, D-Calif., was forcibly removed from a news conference, shoved to the ground and handcuffed for trying to ask questions of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem. Padilla, the son of Mexican immigrants, is the ranking member of the Senate's Border Security and Immigration subcommittee. Noem said he "lunged" at her, that he never identified himself and Secret Service agents believed he was an attacker. A video of the confrontation contradicts her version: Padilla clearly states his name and title — a moot point, given that Noem should have recognized him and that FBI and Secret Service agents are trained to recognize U.S. senators. "If this is how this administration responds to a senator with a question," Padilla said, "if this how this Department of Homeland Security responds to a senator with a question, I can only imagine what they are doing to farmworkers, to cooks, to day laborers out in the Los Angeles community and throughout California and throughout the country." Trump has already warned anyone who protests his parade "will be met with very heavy force." Just like the military on the streets in L.A., the message is clear: Do not question us. Do not stand in our way. We don't answer to you. The themes are still the same as I learned all those years ago: There are those who empathize with the suffering of others, and there are those who cause the suffering of others. Where do you stand, America? Contact Chronicle-Telegram columnist Rini Jeffers at rinijeffers@gmail.com.