A Letter From My German Friend to The USA

To all my English speaking friends... Many years ago some of us met on MySpace.

We debated our political views during the Bush presidency, shared our hopes and fears and today we are still online friends here on Facebook. I am glad about that :) (And I know, I sure made "mistakes/errors" in this text, as always :D sorry for that!) During the last years, I stepped back from all political discussions and worked on a local basis with all kinds of people who were - and still are - in need of help. First I worked with children, old and disabled people, then with people who had all kinds of mental illness and during the last year I worked with refugees, in an emergency shelter, set up by the German government for 1000 refugees... I have uploaded some photos of this time, for those who are interested... It seriously was the best job I ever had. I not only met so many nice, lovely, caring people from around the world, I also learned so much about everything, about myself, about humanity, about humans in general, about cultures, religions, but also about solidarity and this special "team spirit" and about friendship, love and empathy.

Our staff members were multi-cultural, they once came from South Africa, Libanon, Bosnia, Kosovo, Turkey, Venezuela, Afghanistan, Iran, Poland, Russia. Our residents who fled their countries came from Syria, Iran, Iraq, Libanon, Egypt, but also from Eastern Countries, like Mazedonia and Tajikistan and Azerbaijan... to name just a few. All of these people, stuff members as well as refugees/residents “grew together”, in spite of our differences... there were people from countries like Iraq and Syria, who never were in European Countries before... Men who grew up, by learning that to beat and rape their wives is a "normal thing". Women who didn`t know anything about equal rights. Muslims, Sunnits and Shiites, Christians, Jews, even homosexual people, all of them lived together - peacefully most of the time - in very small, narrow, spaces within these emergency tents... It worked very well - sure there were problems sometimes - but without any kind of privacy, we all would have our bad moments at some point. We worked hard to make sure that these people got all the help and all the things they needed. So they got food, clothes and money.... we taught them speaking German, we taught them about our history and what this country stands for today... they learned about our laws and the daily life.. And more importantly, we all learned about each other.... We learned to respect the other view of life, the other way to practice religion, the different cultural realties, in short, we learned to respect the human being behind all of that... because in the end, this is all that matters... By knowing that, it makes it really hard for me to read about all the hate that is spreading around the world against refugees and Muslims, even harder when one of those who is spreading this hate openly, is the President of the United States... I really cannot find words to describe how I am feeling about this. The United States of America always was the leading country with regards to democracy, freedom, freedom of mind and human rights... well it already changed many years ago, silently (I always warned for such a change remember?) but this freedom and the democracy was at least still "acceptable" Right now - exactly that happens what always was one of my worst nightmares. An insane man with narcissistic traits is the elected president of the United States, having the power to destroy the world, elected not by the majority of the people but by the "system" - exactly this system, so many Americans are still proud of. - A man, who is signing executive orders --> "dictator-like".. - A man, who is "replacing" important people in important positions....--> "dictator-like" - A man, who is firing lawyers because he doesn`t like their decisions.... --> "dictator-like" - A man, who is banning people because of their nationality and their religious beliefs from entering the US, even those who already live there legally for many years... --> "racist-islamophobic-like" - A man who wants to build walls, to stop immigrants and criminals --> “small-minded” - A man who is billionaire having business ties to many countries and governments.. including countries like Saudi Arabia, Russia, Turkey, Egypt... --> “for-sure-not-presidental-like” Seriously... ?

There is going something deeply wrong... You know, this is not my business, this is not our German- or European business, all of this, does not effect us very much, so far. The muslim ban does effect some of our dual-citizenship holders --> very, very sad days <-- and I do feel the need to write a little warning...

The problem is - from what I read - that still too many Americans believe that this, what happened to many countries before, still cannot happen to them, to their democracy, to their constitution... But sadly IT CAN HAPPEN everywhere to everyone! Such a "seizure of power" is not dependend on the system - it is unbelievable what fear and a "wrong sense of national pride" can do to the human mind and to get people to vote against their interests... it just happened - or better - it is happening in the US and you could follow a similiar process in Turkey and a few decades ago in Germany... 

Those who know me - and a lot of you even met me personally - should know, that I am not someone who lives in fear, nor do I have paranoia, nor am I one of those conspiracy theorists, I think I am a rational thinking person, I do not believe in religion, but in kindness and I believe that my right is your right too, as it is the right of every single person in this world... It is possible to live together in peace, the last decades did show that... But I really have very, very bad feelings when I follow the news and I really fear that this will have a very, very bad outcome for the entire world... We do have such "Trump-voters" and parties with similar "Trump-views" over here and this mindset is growing again... every country in Europe has these groups of people and it is really scary to imagine, that they also gain power...

This time we should stand up earlier against all those who spread fear and hate... against all the people, who are trying to devide the world, against those who are trying to convince people that some lives matter more than other lives...

This time, no one can sit it out... I know that so many people in the US are protesting and fighting with legal measures, don`t ever stop...

Just a warning from an old German friend!

Good luck!