Yes. It has always been about the racism, the culture of guns & the inevitable result: barbaric, violence in America. Sad to say. But true. I am reading Cormac McCarthy's "Blood Meridian," (1985), about the cold-hearted cauldron that birthed America: The enslavement of Blacks, the Slaughter of Mexicans & of the First Nation's Peoples. Slave ships brought Black folks into the country and those other "people of color" were here first, they were America's first inhabitants, swamped & displaced by the murderous, oppressive white hordes. The white folks murdered their way to power. Just the plain, simple truth. Yes. Racism, Slavery & Genocide, America's original sins. That legacy and reality is with us to this day. The present Trump administration is going back to the original playbook using their false creed of white supremacy as their cudgel.
What of these days of violence, hate & division? Some think it's all the inevitable backlash against Barack Obama and the Civil Rights Era. The Republicans just can't get over the fact that America gladly elected a Black Man (actually part black/part white) as President in 2008 & again in 2012. Seems like ancient history now. Did that really happen? Some of us saw his election as a healing and a promise of a better America. The fulfillment of a dream of equality & inclusion. Some just can't make that leap. Seems insane, immoral. If you aren't racist, and don't fear "the other," if instead you think of all humanity as one beautiful, multi-cultural, multi-racial rainbow, you know, just different shades of being human, it's totally confounding & mind-boggling.
Some of us have trancended, and moved on to a more embracing and welcoming vision. And we hope that we can all rise above, and heal the wounds of our history. But others want to rip open those wounds, keep them fresh to divide & oppress us. Why does Trump, his MAGA movement and the GOP make our skin crawl with contempt? He & they are the absolute worst of us, amplified. Crimes against Humanity and the dream of a Better America.
