My Social Media feed has been filled with thoughtful, quietly proud remembrances of family members who were honoring their fallen loved ones. It was a reminder to me, who never served in the armed forces, of the measureless courage and selflessness that is at the heart of the America I have cherished and respected.

I believe that at core this America still exists and I harbor some optimism that this altruistic spirit might be resurrected. Yet the Memorial Day post made by the sitting President of the United States of America reveals what that Spirit is up against. He began with HAPPY MEMORIAL DAY, which is evidence that he either does not know or does not care that Memorial Day was established not for fun and games, but for thoughtfulness, remembrance, and honoring our fallen soldiers; and he heaped more evidence onto the remainder of his text, which said not one word about the heroes who gave their last full measure of devotion to the defense of our country’s ideals, and to the furtherance of the protection of our country. Instead he used the occasion to malign and demean basically everyone who disagrees with his agenda.

Part of his agenda is the erasure of contributions that people of color have made to the defense of our country. So many of the Memorial Day posts had to do with heroic efforts of African American soldiers whose sacrifices went unacknowledged. Just one example is of a soldier who died valorously in World War I and was not awarded the Medal of Honor he absolutely earned…until 1991. There are numberless other examples of this, and the current President would, if allowed, see to it that there will be many, many more.

Also, astonishingly, he is trying to enact a suspension of habeus corpus, a fundamental means of guaranteeing due process by requiring firsthand evidence of guilt before detaining an individual accused of a crime. (That is a reductive and crude approximation of habeus corpus and I invite more legal-minded readers to comment with a better description.) To be against habeus corpus is to be against “liberty and justice for all.”

My gratitude for the fallen soldiers we honor on Memorial Day extends to those who are fighting for the principles and ideals that have in actuality made America as great as it has been in its finest hours. To all those who oppose the corrupt regime conducted by Donald Trump, my profound and enduring thanks.