I
almost find it amusing the degree to which people try to justify the actions of
those in our society who are determined to let their bigotry and prejudice
dominate their lives.
 |
| TRUMP: At the center of it all |
The
nation’s president, Donald J. Trump, is amongst them, with his daily changes in
statements where he’s determined to give the impression that the people who
protested against the racists in Charlottesville, Va., are just as much to
blame as the bigots who caused the action that resulted in a fatality and many
injuries.
I
RECENTLY STUMBLED onto a conversation by some individuals about that incident
(I wasn’t a participant; but they knew who I was, that I was there and could
hear what they said) who seemed to see a significance in the fact that the
white supremacists got a permit from the city for their protest.
But
the counter-protesters did not!
Does
it really matter that someone took the time to go to City Hall and deal with
the bureaucracy to obtain a permit for a public gathering that was intended to
rile up the citizenry?
Should
it matter that those who were angry went ahead and expressed their outrage?
Which is, after all, one of those legal rights our society is based upon. Or do
we only permit people to speak out with the appropriate permit in place?
THESE
THOUGHTS POPPED into my head after learning of the Tuesday night protest that
occurred outside the Chicago Police Department area headquarters at Belmont and
Western avenues – three people wound up being arrested.
One
tried to strike a police officer while another tried interfering with police
when they were arresting someone else. A third insisted on trying to walk
during the protest in the middle of the street – instead of the sidewalk as
police requested/demanded/insisted.
This
protest was meant to express the idea that police were just as much a part of
the white supremacist structure of our society.
I
have no doubt that some in our society will want to view these people as being the
real problem, and not those people who choose to wear swastika-bearing logos or
the blood-drop symbol of the Ku Klux Klan or any of the other myriad symbols
that exist for fringe groups whose only purpose is to make those white people
who join them feel less insecure about their place in life.
THESE
PEOPLE WHO are more than eager to shift the blame are the ones to whom Trump is
speaking with his continually-changing comments that relate to the happenings
of Charlottesville.
Just
as Trump knows he got elected president despite the political opposition of a
majority of the population who bothered to vote, but doesn’t concern himself
with that fact, he’s now focusing on appeasing that segment of society
determined to live their lives in some sort of fantasy existence.
One
in which it’s still the 19th Century and certain types of people can
be marginalized with full legitimacy.
I’m
sure in the mindset of Trump and his staffers, the 46 percent of the electorate
who voted for him are the only people who matter – and a majority of them
probably have no problem with the presidential double-talk and inability to
pick a side against bigotry with regards to this issue.
ONE
OTHER POINT that some like to try to make is that the original protest by the
supremacists last week was meant to be a statement against the removal of
century-old statues (in many cases) commemorating the leaders of the failed
Confederacy.
Statues
that, in many cases, were erected by government officials wanting to make a
public statement about which “side” of the racial equation they were backing.
If
anything, the latest outbursts may well wind up scaring enough public officials
into wanting to remove those statues because of the stink they impose on our
society as a whole.
Which
would be a societal plus if the outcry winds up becoming the impetus to
removing those memorials to a cause that advocated treason against our nation –
and ought to have been eradicated so many decades ago.
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