This past weekend was the perfect picture of the state of the country. Parades marching in the opposite directions, thousands mostly marching peacefully in hundreds of cities for No Kings Day protesting Trump’s abuse of power. Police and National Guard troops in Los Angeles battled with demonstrators protesting the mass arrests of illegal immigrants that has been going on for over a week. A man with a gun shot and killed a demonstrator in Salt Lake City. A man in West Chester, Pennsylvania was arrested with a gun and ammunition at a No Kings march.
Worst of all, the murder of a Minnesota State Representative and her husband in their home in the middle of the night. This after the wounding of a State Senator and his wife in their home a short distance away. The shooter was pretending to be a police officer. Politics appears to be the motive. Less than twenty four hours later the other parade. Thousand of troops and Army vehicles marching past pretend strong man Donald Trump celebrating the 250th anniversary of the army and, by the way, Trump’s birthday which cost taxpayers $45 million dollars. This from a man who is quoted as calling veterans who gave their lives for the country “losers and suckers”. He denies it. He wouldn’t visit an American cemetery in France because it was raining and he claimed his helicopter couldn’t fly which was not true. The real reason may have been he didn’t want to get his hair wet. Trump dodged the draft in the sixties when a podiatrist diagnosed him with bone spurs in his foot. The podiatrist rented his office in a building owned by Trump’s father.
Violence has been building for months. Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro’s residence was fire bombed while he and his family slept upstairs after celebrating a Seder dinner. In Colorado, a man threw firebombs at demonstrators marching in support of hostages in Gaza. A young couple who worked at the Israeli embassy in Washington were shot and killed leaving an event at the Jewish Museum.
Protestors took to the streets to protest the Vietnam war and when the police killed George Floyd most were peaceful some were violent. I would argue, this time it’s different. The country is afraid. We are afraid of each other and it’s being stoked by Trump and those who support his abusive policies. A president should be trying to bring sides together and at least try to come to some compromise. Trump uses his power to dominate, seek revenge on his perceived enemies and enrich himself. It’s just a sign of how small and insecure a man he really is. He’s being played by Putin in Ukraine, Netanyahu in Gaza and Iran and Xi on trade. I can only imagine what the G-7 leaders are really thinking at their meeting today in Canada when Trump comes strutting it.
Since the end of World War II, there has never been a doubt about American leadership and what we stood for around the world. The free world depended on us in time of need and crisis. I fear what they see now is a fractured America in need of help in our own crisis.
Sad but true and more to come.