Canary in a Coal Mine: An Omen from Lisbon

While in Lisbon, Becca and I walked over to Jardim do Torel to watch the dogs playing in the park before their owners had to go to work. One dog, named Maxie, caught our attention when she jumped up and stood on the water fountain. When I gestured to the owner asking to take her picture, he responded back in English, obviously recognizing I was an American. We quickly engaged in a conversation about Lisbon and what it is like to live there. Maxie’s owner had moved to Lisbon from the United States two years ago with his Venezuelan husband.

They both love Lisbon and feel welcome and accepted. The distressing part of the conversation was about the reason they moved in the first place. Sadly, they no longer felt safe in the United States. Since 2016, the combination of rising homophobia, racism, and rampant obsession of gun ownership makes the United States too dangerous for them. Even visiting his mother in Southern Illinois became too risky.

  Maxie’s human companion is a student of history, and he spoke of the parallel between today and the 1930s, when fascism marched across Europe. We both share the fear of the rise of this newest, dressed up, form of rightwing authoritarianism. Vulnerable people are under attack in our country, by violence and legislative decree. Look no further than Florida or Tennessee legislatures if you think we are being hyperbolic.

I don’t know if we are heading down the same path as Nazi Germany, but I do know that as the Nazis began to consolidate their power, many German Jews emigrated to the United States, fearful of their bleak outlook. Maxie’s owner has also chosen this path and has few regrets. He and his husband are lucky they have the financial means to escape to a safer land. Most people who feel threatened by the rise of the fanatical rightwing in our country don’t have the resources to make such a move. They are at the mercy of luck and the American electorate, who continue to vote in lawmakers who support their bigotry while refusing to slow the manufacture and sale of weapons designed for combat.

  The election of Donald Trump brought on a sharp, increased interest of people leaving the United States. But, Maxie’s owner is not just a statistic. He is a human being who took the extraordinary step of leaving his country for another. The intolerance that Trump rode to power is now being trumpeted by other self-serving politicians with devastating consequences for those in the path of this tsunami of hatred. While the man I met is only one example of the impact of our divisive politics, he is still one too many. And I fear his exodus is like the canary in a coal mine, a dire warning of our future. And like a coal mine with toxic air, it will be a very bleak future indeed if our elected leaders will not protect the rights of all Americans.