So Mr Trump says he’s going to make America great again. He’s going to do it by building a wall between the USA and Mexico to keep the Mexicans out; he’s going to stop all Muslims from coming into the USA; he egged on his supporters when they attacked blacks at his rallies and he’s happy to be endorsed by David Duke, the leader of the Klu Klux Klan; he makes fun of disabled people and says that women should be “treated like sh*t” (I am quoting him); he’s going to make the rest of the world “respect America again” by refusing to negotiate with anyone and thereby refusing to respect anyone else… And the list goes on.

His supporters wildly cheer every time he says these things, which makes me sad and fearful for the America that I know and love.

I used to think that Australia and America had a lot in common. We both believed passionately in a democracy, which had the foundations of freedom of speech, freedom of religion, freedom of conscience and the belief that “all men (people) are created equal”. We’ve been allies in every war since World War I, in which we fought to uphold those ideals at home and abroad.

The Statue of Liberty used to be a beacon for all freedom-loving people everywhere. Do you know the poem that is engraved on the statue’s pedestal: The New Colossus by Emma Lazarus? No? Well, here it is.

Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame, with conquering limbs astride from land to land;
Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand a mighty woman with a torch, whose flame is the imprisoned lightning, and her name Mother of Exiles.
From her beacon-hand glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command the air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame.
“Keep ancient lands, your storied pomp!” cries she with silent lips. “Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, the wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me, I lift my lamp beside the golden door!” 

That, America, is what made you great.
Now you, and to some extent we, have bought the rhetoric of fear, espoused by Mr Trump and others. Once more bigotry has raised its ugly head. Due to the work of terrorists, we’re now suspicious, and even fearful, of our neighbours. We choose anger, rejection and judgement, rather than forgiveness, (cautious) dialogue and open-mindedness. The more we give in to our baser fears, the more we give victory to the terrorists.

Rather than reacting with “an eye for an eye” or “kill before being killed”, let’s choose not to stoop to their level. Let’s choose to be the better people, demonstrating in our lives and in our communities that there is a better way to live.

That is what will make America, Australia and others, great again.