Two Americans Abroad
Dear Leading Ladies,
On our second day in Denmark, we took a cab from the train station in Skanderborg to Rhy, where our hiking was to begin. I had already received a wink from a man on the train, which I took as approval of my baseball cap’s message, “Elect a clown. Expect a circus,” since winks at my age are rarely flirtatious. We entered the cab pretty confident we were on our way to creating some positive feelings about Americans when our cab driver asked us where we were from. “The United States,” we said, quickly adding, “but we don’t like our president.” Our cab driver replied, ”He’s a great guy, great for our country.” “Are you kidding,” we asked. “He wants to take Greenland.”
Then we got it. “Which country is he good for?” “My country,” he replied. “And which is that?” “Syria,” he said. “Trump is great for Syria. He just got all the sanctions lifted. Soon, I’ll be able to go back.” Our cab driver has been in Denmark for ten years. He was quick to praise its schools, health care, environmental advances, and more, everything but its politics. Still, clearly, Syria is his country. And Trump is his hero.
Our encounter with our first cab driver prepared us to expect myriad responses as we conducted our very unscientific survey of how Danes view Americans and the Trump administration.
A crew member on a ferry boat two days later laughed at my hat and said he could only speak for himself but he never assumed Americans he met approved of Trump. He knew at most half did. That said, he couldn’t believe there were that many who did. That sentiment was repeated over and over by people we spoke with during our nine days in Denmark.
A woman I spoke with on the ferry lives in Denmark now but came from Zambia and traces her family roots to 18th century Germans who immigrated to Denmark. She also has relatives who came from Germany to Denmark when Hitler rose to power. She recalled that it didn’t matter to the Nazis if people had assimilated and practiced Christianity in Denmark or Germany. If they were suspected of having any Jewish ancestors, they were targeted. When Denmark was first occupied, the Danes cooperated because they thought they would soon be left alone, she said. When it became clear that wasn’t so, the resistance grew. She said she doesn’t understand why there isn’t more resistance in the U.S. She sees what’s happening as being just like what happened in Germany. Apparently, reports of protests in the U.S. do not make their news. We wondered why? Voice of America cutbacks? Danish media choosing not to cover? What?
No one we spoke with seemed to take the threat to Greenland very seriously. The U.S. already has as many military bases there as it wants, we were told. At least one person also mentioned that, because of climate change, Greenland is getting warm and has monster mosquitoes!!
We approached our second cab driver with broader expectations. Instead of announcing our dislike of our president, we said something vague like, “We are from the United States but we don’t particularly like our president.” He immediately said, “everyone hates him.” We replied, “unfortunately, not everyone.” Noting his name on his cab license and his non-Danish accent, we asked where he’d come to Denmark from. “Pakistan.” His disdain for Trump made sense. When we had another Pakistani cab driver, though, he evaded our probing about his feelings. “Nice weather,” he responded!
One afternoon, my traveling companion sat in a cafe talking with a group of thirty-somethings who said they’d always wanted to travel to and around the U.S., but no longer want to since the Trump administration has taken control.
On our last day of walking, we picked up our luggage where it had been left for us in a grocery store in the small town of Ansl. The clerk explained that they were labeling items imported from Canada because customers would be reluctant to buy goods from the U.S.
Two different professional people we sat next to on the train back to Copenhagen told us of efforts by Danish universities to reach out to American researchers whose funding has been cut, offering them work, visas, and fully-equipped labs. Our fellow travelers said the hope is to launch a kind of brain drain from American universities.
More than a few of those we spoke to mentioned that Europeans are learning from what is happening in the U.S. and taking it as a warning. Certainly, a common sentiment was that the U.S. is no longer the leader of the free world, and Trump “can not sit at the head of the table,” whether he realizes it or not.
I found it disturbing to listen to the reactions of Danes to the situation in the United States while I was reading “Prophet Song,” a novel about a government that becomes authoritarian, cracking down on unions and free speech, disappearing labor leaders while a rebel force develops and soon employs methods as frightening as those of the government. And yet, the people remain reluctant to leave while they can.
Paying attention suddenly seemed even more important.
All the best,
Judy (she/her/hers)
Therese (she/her/hers)
Didi (she/her/hers)
Leading Ladies Executive Team