No pass

In cheering on the police rioting and dividing the country along color lines in recent weeks, Trump was demonstrating once again his utter unfitness for the presidency. To expect this poor excuse of a human being to express empathy to the heartbroken Floyd family and the other families who have recently lost a daughter or son as a result of police violence, or appeal for unity at this moment of national trial, or insist on meaningful criminal justice reform of the policing system is about as likely as the sun rising in the west.

Trump’s daily twitter messages, even now, are rhetorical flame-throwers designed to heighten tensions, exacerbate divisions, encourage police thuggery, and rev up his base who drink the Kool Aid of white supremacy, sexism, homophobia, xenophobia, and great power nationalism. His tweet three weeks ago, “When the looting starts, the shooting starts,” was a calculated instruction to cops to police out of the barrel of a gun.

Last week a white cop in Atlanta did just that. He shot Rayshard Brooks. But Brooks wasn’t looting. His only crime was his Blackness. That alone was enough to earn him two deadly shots in the back. Nothing will bring Rayshard Brooks back into the world. But each of us in our own way can do something to create a world in which Black Lives Matter!