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It is always a delight in our Republic when former leaders think enough of the people on whose behalf they undertook the stewardship of the nation, to send greetings to mark the celebration of important holidays. These usually mirror the short salutations given when they served in office. The form is simple: one touches on the nature of the event, one adds some sort of solidarity building expression, and then one might add a self-serving political message or two to suit the times and their interests. The 2010 salutation of Mr. Obama delivered in this case during the course of a radio address provides a nice example of the form:
President Obama used his radio address Saturday to send Easter tidings to America. "On this Easter weekend, let us hold fast to those aspirations we hold in common as brothers and sisters, as members of the same family—the family of man," he said. As for his own family, Obama said they "will join other Christians all over the world in marking the resurrection of Jesus Christ" on Sunday. Obama called on Americans to "remember the shared spirit of humanity that inhabits us all—Jews and Christians, Muslims and Hindus, believers and nonbelievers alike" during the holidays. In addition to his Easter message, Obama highlighted the latest jobs numbers, which showed the highest growth since 2007, as evidence the economy was turning around. (Obama's Easter Wishes).
Mr. Trump, as has been his custom over the years, delivered his message in a tweet, the text of which is reproduced above. While Mr. Obama appeared to have focused on the Resurrection (a common theme during Easter, with or without the reference to the events marked by Good Friday), Mr. Trump pointed more directly to the suffering that preceded it, in this case his and his vision for the state of things. Greetings in honor of the day were extended to all. Nonetheless a number of different classes of celebrants were singled out in a highly condensed message that was meant, perhaps, to underline a perspective of the message of the day to those persons. The message expressed concern about the nature of dreams-. Everyone dreams--sometimes they appear to be oracular, sometimes they provide a safe means of expressing fears, desires or other things. Sometimes dreams can be highly symbolic--in the sense that semiotics understands symbols--as the meaning expression attached to objects to both identify (name) them and to invest them with signification. In this case, the dreams touched on the future of the Republic. Not, in this case, in the form of dreaming of others expressed in the highly technical language of labor statistics and their signification. Mr. Trump's dreamers appear to dream in more apocalyptic terms--perhaps in accord with the spirit of the times or of this day. Against the dream of the end of the Republic, Mr. Trump offers a vision that he believes will overcome or at least delay this apocalypse--one elaborated within walls and more impermeable borders, and in certain rituals for the performance of popular elections. This vision may offer hope to many. To others it disrupts dreams of a wholly different character. And in that, perhaps, one might find revealed the glory of the structures within which, in this Republic, many may all dream together. Together, then, Mr. Obama and Mr. Trump remind the nation of its humanity.
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