01-08-2025
Trump is paving over Rose Garden lawn, trying to rename Kennedy Center. Time to pray
When I first learned the lawn of the beloved Rose Garden was getting paved over, the news saddened me. All my life, the Rose Garden and the White House went together like a horse and carriage.
The Rose Garden has been associated with several first ladies, each one adding her touch to make it more beautiful than before.
The idea for a garden on America's lawn first came about in 1903, when first lady Edith Roosevelt helped to create a colonial-style garden, according to the National Park Service. A decade later, in 1913, first lady Ellen Wilson expanded on the idea and replaced the garden with roses, hence, the Rose Garden.
Americans loved the garden. But like any other garden, upgrades were needed from time to time. One of those upgrades came during the John F. Kennedy administration, when first lady Jacqueline Kennedy worked with designer Rachel Lambert Melton to redesign the garden. Melton created the central grass lawn in 1962, the one now being paved over for a patio.
During the Kennedy era and some years following, when security wasn't as tight as it is today, the White House and its grounds were open to the public. Tourists and visitors often stopped to take pictures near the Rose Garden. It was our garden, our pride and joy.
The Rose Garden came to mind when I learned there is a move to rename the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts after President Donald Trump. While the controversial move is being pushed by some Republicans - Rep. Bob Onder, a Missouri Repubican House member introduced a bill to change the center's name to Trump on July 23— many Americans are outraged.
Just as the Rose Garden was a part of the legacy of some former first ladies, the Kennedy Center is a part of the legacy of the late President John F. Kennedy and his commitment to the arts.
But these moves are not about paving over the Rose Garden or renaming the Kennedy Center. These moves are blatant efforts to rewrite our history. They take their place right along with the banning of books and the erasing of Black history from our history books.
This didn't start with the destruction of the Rose Garden or the effort to rename the Kennedy Center after Trump. Remember when President Trump, during his first term, refused to hold an unveiling ceremony for the portrait of President Barack Obama?
Many Americans were outraged at Trump's actions. Not because they were so in love with President Obama. But they recognized that even if they didn't like Obama, he had served as the president of the United States of America for two terms.
In fact, in April, the Trump administration announced it had moved a portrait of Obama in a White House hallway and replaced it with a painting of Trump pumping his fist after his assassination attempt last year.
One of the things that bothers me about the goings on in our country today is this spirit of hate and spite. President Trump's ability to hate so openly and unashamedly is so strong that it is rubbing off on many other Americans. His disrespect for the truth and his burning hate for anyone who disagrees with him is tearing apart our country.
As a nation, I don't believe we can continue to go down this road without some serious consequences.
I remember his birthing campaign against Obama. The hate that he held for the former president, and his disregard for the truth, was too strong for him to hide. Even before he was elected to the presidency the first time, he spent millions of dollars trying to prove the first African American president of the United States wasn't born in America and therefore was an illegal president.
Even when birthing experts proved him wrong, he never apologized. He'd rather believe a lie than the truth.
President Trump seems to be so wrapped up in deceit and hate he incited his followers to stage an insurrection on our nation's Capital, which took the lives of several innocent people.
Yet, in all the reports that I read or interviews that I saw on television, Mr. Trump never took responsibility for the insurrection or offer condolences to the families of the people who were unjustly killed on Jan. 6, 2021.
How did we get here, America? How did we let things get so out of hand that we are literally watching our American values being destroyed, our traditions ripped apart and our history rewritten?
And what's worse, many so-called Christians aren't willing to stand with holy boldness and call out the president, or any other leader, when they are wrong.
Many will quote the passage from the Bible that says, '… God hath not given us the spirit of fear…' yet they stand like spiritual cowards in the sight of God and our fellow human beings.
By the same token, I don't see many Republicans standing up for what they know is the right thing to do. Are you that afraid, too, my Republican friends?
When I was growing up and something devasting happened in our family or in our neighborhood/community/country, I would hear my mother saying, 'Ya'll, it's praying time!'
Today, it's praying time. We must pray for our president and other world leaders. Calling out our leaders when they are wrong is the right thing to do. Good parents who love their children do not uphold them in their wrongdoing.
If we love President Trump (yes, I said love) as the lord tells us to, we must not sit quietly by and watch him saturate our country with hate and untruth. Like me, many of you are too old to march in protest.
But we can pray. A simple, earnest prayer each day from our heart to God's ear will go a long way to the eventual healing of America. And President Trump.
My friends, the eyes of God are upon us and one day we will all be held accountable. When we know something to be wrong, we must stand with holy boldness and say so.
