Carol Bergman

 

 

 We were all once strangers in this land.

 

-Bishop Marian Edgar Budde, @ Washington National Cathedral, 1/20/25

 

 

 

I had a nightmare last night: ICE has arrived and is taking my relatives away, back to the country where they were born, only to be sent to the Gulag, or to death camps.  There is nothing I can do to stop their deportation, and even though I assume I am safe, because I was born in America, I am not safe. During the next round-up, I, too shall be deported, my rights as a citizen obliterated.

 

After a strong cup of tea, I pulled up the text of the 14th amendment to reassure myself that as a First Generation American, I am indeed protected by the Constitution of the United States. Here is Section 1, in full:

 

All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside. No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.

 

Strangely, though the text is clear, and numerous lawsuits are already pending against the new administration, I was not reassured. It was Elon Musk's "salute," to the audience on Inauguration Day that gave me pause, and worse. I know a fascist salute when I see one.

 

And he did it once, and then he did it again. The CNN reporter caught it and commented on it. Later in the day social media started some chatter, but not firmly enough from my point of view. I began to regret turning down the offer of Austrian citizenship. In Austria and in Germany, the fascist salute is illegal. Musk would have been arrested and charged. He might have received a fine, or a six month prison sentence. The use of Nazi phrases associated with the salute is also forbidden.

 

The Nazi salute is also banned in Slovakia and the Czech Republic. In Switzerland and Sweden, the salute, or "gesture," as it is sometimes called, is considered a hate crime. The Swiss softened the restriction in 2014 with these words from their Supreme Court: "If the person giving  it was only expressing their own convictions." Well, the Swiss have a history of such moral waffling regarding Nazism.

 

Is Elon Musk a neo-Nazi, pretending to be a neo-Nazi, a South African white nationalist neo-Nazi, or none of the above? He was born in South Africa in 1971 during the apartheid regime, steeped in the privilege of all white South Africans. Mandela was released from prison in 1990 and Mandela and de Klerk finally reached a peaceful agreement on the future of South Africa at the end of 1993, an achievement for which they jointly received the 1993 Nobel Peace Prize. 

 

With an apartheid-loving, anti-Semitic grandfather who migrated from Canada to South Africa, one is just left to wonder about the grandson and what was in his mind as he made the "gesture." I am sure the now released Oath Keepers, Proud Boys, and other January 6th reprieved prisoners, enjoyed what most law-abiding Americans, no matter their political affiliation, would consider a despicable display.