Another perspective on Trump’s undesirable countries

I need to say a word about “s**-hole” countries. In 1969, I was a Merchant Marine seaman on a freighter to West Africa, visiting seven different nations, Senegal down to Nigeria. I also spent several weeks on-ship in the ports of New York City and Baltimore.

Those were hopeful days in Africa, before the oil and mineral-mining corporations took over with their lethal, heavily-drugged, child armies. I had free time to wander to the outskirts of the cities and get truly lost among the people, totally dependent on their goodwill.

The citizens of these motherlands taught me lessons I never learned in American college: trust, innocence, humility, the ancient law of hospitality, collective work, the wealth of innate joy. Never have I felt so safe wandering alone, even after midnight, through the city. In fact, the real “s---holes” were here in the ports of NYC and Baltimore after dark, with their perpetual threat of violence and robbery, the air thick with racial distrust between us drunken sailors.

I never thought my country would have a President who disdained the poor, despised people of color, and insulted citizens of the Third World. I feel ashamed. I ask forgiveness from my African brothers and sisters, who took such good care of me when I was 21, who fed me with their hands and gave me sleep in their grass huts on the edge of the forest. I feel very sorry for our President, and for his crippled heart.

This story was originally published January 24, 2018 at 3:44 PM with the headline "Another perspective on Trump’s undesirable countries."