This is Irrefutable

The news photo of a defenseless 92-year old Mexican man who was recently beaten with a brick by a woman and kicked by men, haunts and torments me. The woman, whose toddler daughter watched the whole thing, told the bleeding and battered old man to “Go back to Mexico.” He was visiting his family and was simply taking a walk near the house when the woman assaulted him. 92 years old.

I watched a lengthy video on Facebook last week by a young Latina woman at a Chicago park who was verbally taunted by a drunk white man who kept getting in her face while a white police officer stood by and watched, doing nothing, even though she kept asking the officer to intervene. She and her family had rented a space at the park for a birthday party. But the drunk man and another white man were sitting in their space and wouldn’t leave. He then began harassing her because she was wearing a shirt that read, Puerto Rico on it. Eventually, several other police officers arrived but they let the drunk man rant on mindlessly and refused to arrest him on public intoxication and assaulting the young woman. They did nothing.

For the longest time, we have been seeing videos of unarmed black men being shot and killed, often shot in the back, by white police officers. None of them ever held to account for anything, much less murder.

People of color are now senselessly being bullied, assaulted, and in some instances threatened and beaten and told they are not welcome in America.

I’m at the point now that I don’t really care what your politics are. You can be the most radical right-wing Republican or the most far-out liberal. Doesn’t matter anymore. The political system is ruined. But as a human being, as a human person with a soul and a mind and the ability to know right from wrong, you have to see how openly, unapologetically brutal and vicious some people are being towards people of color in this country. And it’s getting worse day by day.

Don’t say it’s always been this way. It hasn’t. Don’t blame Obama. Or Clinton. Or G.W. Bush. Or Kennedy or Johnson. They all contributed to our current national disgrace in one way or another. But they aren’t the main problem.

You can certainly blame Mitch McConnell for a lot of it. That man carries a poison in him that has damaged our entire political structure for years to come. His contribution to our American decay is enormous and unrelenting. His corruption, scheming, prejudice, and evil misuse of power remain destructive forces in our nation. Blame him. He’s guilty.

Some will vehemently disagree with me, but let’s be honest. The bulk of the blame for our national state of disarray, meanness, bigotry, and even cruelty lies squarely at the feet of Donald Trump. He publicly mocks people. He incites violence. He’s rude to allies and is a bully to opponents. He is a serial adulterer and has a history of using women. He consistently ignores laws that may in any way interfere with his obsession with wealth and power. He has never severed his business from his office as president and makes deals that personally enrich himself at the expense of American businesses and the public at large. He is not a marketing genius. He is not a skilled negotiator. He is a real estate magnate with a shady history of business practices. He is a man with a wounded ego that needs constant attention. And as president, he repeatedly makes up rules on the fly that advance his own selfish desires. He caters to a small group of Americans and dismisses the rest of the country.

But worst of all, he has proven that he is a white entitled elitist who is consumed with his own whiteness and power. He has yet to say or do anything to bring our fractured nation together. His policies are divisive and biased on every level. He treats Mexicans with endless contempt. He has not once defended the rights of black Americans.

We are being led by a man and an administration that has no interest in American values, moral principles, settled laws, fair play, justice for all, or the intelligent discussion of serious issues with people on all sides.

That Mr. Trump is repeatedly supported and praised by Christians, is one of the greatest insults to religious belief ever perpetrated by so-called followers of Jesus.

This is no longer about politics. This isn’t a Republican/Democrat issue. Our national moral crisis is about a vindictive, emotionally dysfunctional president who is daily dismantling the American way of life for his benefit and leaving the country angry, mean, prejudiced, and violent.

This is irrefutable. And all Americans can no longer in good conscience deny it.

Praise him. Vote for him. Support him at your own peril. But please, do not ignore what has happened to America. We are not the “United” States. Until we put our deepest moral principles above our politics, we may never be again.

© 2018 Timothy Moody