I had a busy saturday today (furniture store, appliance store, etc). Nevertheless, in the morning I had time to glance at the television (AM Joy) while getting ready to go. I was watching a minister give an interview in the middle of an anti-fascist march when she was suddenly pushed out of the frame because of fights in the streets.
While watching the march, I was taken aback by the how lightly-protected the anti-fascist protesters were. I thought to myself: "If I ever went to one of those protests, I would at least have some protection for my head" (like some of these Venezuelan protesters) (photo below from NYTimes article):
The Guardian has the tragic video:
"Charlottesville: one dead after car rams counter-protesters at far-right gathering"
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/aug/12/virginia-unite-the-right-rally-protest-violence
When a Muslim extremist runs over innocent people using a vehicle, politicians in the United States rightly condemn the extremist & his (or her) warped beliefs. But Trump seems unable to do so if the perpetrator is white. That's the sad reality we're living in at this moment in time, we have a president who appears to want to appease the extreme right-wing.
In my partisan opinion, George W Bush was a terrible president; I opposed the invasion of Iraq & I was against the environmental & financial decisions made during his administration. But one of the very few things I respect about George W. Bush, was the fact he spoke at a Mosque after 9/11 in order to calm the fear of U.S. Muslims, but it also helped to calm all of us down. Had Trump been president back then, he would've stoked fear, hate & anger that would've created a crisis within the country.
I think we're at a critical point where things could spiral out of control if there's no moral leadership from the presidency.
It's incredible, but it appears we took for granted common-sense actions that presidents (even George W Bush) took back in the now seemingly long-ago era before Trump.
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