OK, so this weekend Trump took control of the news cycle
once again. Rather than talking about
the destruction of Puerto Rico, the glooming failure of Obama Care repeal, the
war of words between Trump and North Korea, the news cycle was focused on
athletes’ rights to protest, respecting the flag, and racial politics. Trump is good at commanding attention.
I think it is such a clear illustration of what kind of man
Trump is that he actually spends the time and energy to go after peaceful
protesters while he recently pardoned the infamous Sherriff
Joe Arpio .
Arpio was a man who bragged about having his own
concentration camp. Under his
leadership, mistreatment of prisoners was routine. His crackdown on Latinos was found to be
unconstitutional and he was ordered to stop.
He refused to comply with the judge’s orders and was found in contempt
of court. For this, Trump pardoned
him. Even Paul Ryan publically disagreed
with this pardon. Arpio was also one of
the main people pushing the idea that Obama was not born in the US (along with
Trump) and even sent a team to Hawaii to investigate. Trump called Arpio a patriot.
Meanwhile we have players in the NFL who have decided to
drop a knee to protest what they believe to be racial injustice in the US,
including the shooting of unarmed black men by police or wanna-be police. Colin Kaepernick and Eric Reid started doing this and it has
since spread, as has the controversy over what they are doing. Read
here an op-ed by Reid on why they did it and chose to be respectful as they
did.
It is incredible to me, not only that the President of the
United States, would call peaceful protestors such as these, sons of bitches,
it is also incredible to me how many people defend him, saying how the players
are disrespecting the flag, and the country, and the military. This is such hogwash. Clever, but
hogwash.
When Bush bombed Iraq, I got heat for protesting that war – I
wasn’t “supporting the troops”, people told me.
No, I was trying to prevent our government from sending the troops to
fight an unwinnable and immoral war – I was supporting the troops (and was
thanked over and over again by military personnel who took the time to
literally salute my protest of that war).
Folks in the military believe they are fighting to keep this country
free – that includes free speech. And
dropping a knee during a song and a prayer to the flag, this is not so
disrespectful. The injustices blacks
have suffered in this country, and still suffer, are so terrible, they could
certainly move a person to want to protest and to not fully embrace the moment
of false unity that the national anthem might represent for many. And by dropping a knee, they aren’t
preventing anyone else from standing tall and proud. They are simply using their platform to take
a stand for something they believe in.
The fact that this is what Trump thinks about. How does he even have time? That is sick and frightening. Of course it is not surprising. We know he knows how to use simple tactics
like rallying ‘round the flag and calling others unpatriotic to help sure up
his political support. We also know he
loves to be a bully. He bullies everyone
– even those in his own cabinet. He won
the election by being a bully. He is the
reality TV show villain. And now that
this bully has the US military behind him, he uses that as a tool with which to
bully entire nations. He took the
opportunity of speaking in front of the UN (a body designed to bring countries
together in the name of world peace) to threaten the entire nation of North
Korea with complete destruction. That
would mean killing 25,000,000 people.
How can you even threaten such a thing?
He could have stated how different our values are from North Korea, etc,
but no, the bully threatens to kill them all, men, women, and children.
Policy differences aside, the man in the White House is a
disgrace to our nation, to our flag, to the ideals of this country. I can think of reasons to feel patriotic, he
is certainly not one of them.
