October 6, 2019
The Ukraine scandal sparked by a courageous whistleblower is rapidly descending from tragedy to farce. Donald Trump has now accused his dim bulb Secretary of Energy, “Dancing With The Stars” alumni, Rick Perry, of pushing him to make his ill-fated call to Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky, (Source: “Scoop: Trump pins Ukraine call on Energy Secretary Rick Perry”,by Alayna Treene, Jonathan Swan, Axios.com, 10/5/19). The “Mad King” spent Saturday rage tweeting Mitt Romney (Mitt Romney?!) for having the temerity to state the obvious— that Trump attempted to pressure Zelensky for his own selfish political ends that had nothing to do with corruption or our national security interest .
Yet even as this dysfunctional administration is mired in chaos and backbiting, it managed to find the time on Friday to issue an executive order mandating that no immigration visas would be issued to those who could not demonstrate that they had health insurance or the financial resources to pay for medical care, (Source: “Trump Will Deny Immigrant Visas to Those Who Can’t Pay for Health Care,” by Michael D. Shear and Miriam Jordan, The New York Times, 10/4/19). This is particularly rich, coming from an administration that has attacked health insurance coverage for Americans with messianic zeal. It comes on the eve of the administration’s implementation of a new interpretation of the “public charge” rule, widened to deem those who use, or at one time used, Medicaid, food stamps or housing assistance public charges. This is a “vague and overbroad characterization,” expressly designed to target poor people of color, (Source: “Legal challenges aim to derail Trump’s ‘public charge’ rule that could limit path to citizenship for poor immigrants,” by Abigail Hauslohner, The Washington Post, 10/2/19). These executive orders show the determination of this vile administration, even as it circles the drain, to erect ever more barriers to citizenship for people of color.
While it is tempting to believe that ridding ourselves of Trump and his Republican confederates will solve our problems, two stories from the last 24 hours make clear that it will take much more than that. Late last night, Joshua Brown, the witness whose testimony led to the conviction of Amber Guyger in the murder of Botham Jean, was killed, execution style, just outside of his home in Dallas. Although the Dallas police have not identified a suspect, it is hard to believe that Joshua Brown, a former athlete turned entrepreneur, was not murdered as retribution for his testimony (Source: “Joshua Brown, a key witness in the murder trial of Amber Guyger was fatally shot,“ by Anya Wagtendonk, Vox.com, 10/6/19).
As it is, Guyger’s conviction was a Pyrrhic victory, given the light sentence and the obsequious display of forgiveness shown by the Black judge in the case. Brown’s murder is a chilling signal to Black people that the price to pay for even a muted measure of justice is death.
In addition, last night another mass shooting, this time in Kansas City, Kansas, left four people dead and five more wounded. Although all of the victims were Latinx, since the assailant has not been caught, we have no further information on the motive for these murders, (Source: “Kansas City Shooting. 4 Killed and 5 Others Wounded at Bar,” by John Eligon and Iliana Magra, The New York Times, 10/6/19).
The sobering reality is that far too many in this country are fueled by racism and addicted to violence. That cannot be cured by half measures, or by pretending that we can return to the status quo. We must dedicate ourselves not only to dismantling the apparatus of oppression built by this President, but by dismantling those barriers put in place by previous presidents, both Republican and Democrat, that allowed income inequality to grow to monstrous proportions; locked Black and Brown people in crumbling neighborhoods plagued by disinvestment, and consigned Black and Brown children to failing schools. We must stop capitulating to those who fetishize their misinterpretation of the Second Amendment. This can’t be done without sacrifice. The choice is yours—how much do you value comfort over justice?