Tears for the red, white and blue

It has been a distressing couple of days, hasn’t it? Who am I kidding? It’s been a horrifying 4 years, to be truthful. Note: I say this from my white privileged perspective knowing full well that those of other demographics have suffered tremendously for centuries.

Even though the number of fatalities was minuscule in comparison (5 vs 2,977), watching this country’s most recent display of domestic terrorism has left me with images burned behind my eyelids just like 9/11 did nearly 20 years ago.

This time, instead of towers falling on an endless loop, I’m seeing the man and his family of 9 children who drove 17 hours from Iowa to witness Wednesday’s Stop the Klan Steal rally.

Not a single one of them wore a mask in the midst of the worst health crisis in the last century.

I’m hearing a woman again stating that there is no such thing as Covid and there have been no Covid deaths. My eyes roll as I think about the man wearing the grey Civil War uniform who boasted he chose it because Donald Trump had asked him to wear it. And the sweatshirt declaring “Camp Auschwitz.”

In addition to expressing their ignorance and aggressive anger, they freely shared their germs, potentially of the Covid sort. None of them followed local ordinances or health department recommendations to cover their mouths and noses. No, these people prefer to cover their eyes.

If someone can’t see the situation that occurred on Wednesday as the almost predictable result of four years of presidential lies, manipulation of the media via social networks and the acquiescence of a political party that once held itself up as the party of morality, they, too, are blind. 

While I may cover my mouth, I won’t be silenced about the deep and lasting impact of four years of a Trump reign. He, and the soulless politicians who far out bastard me, broke this country for their own gain. They’ve fooled 70+ million people into believing that facts are alternative and science is bad. It’s dystopian.

If you supported, or, God forbid, continue to believe that the Trump family is concerned with anyone’s but their own interests, it’s time for you to take those blinders off your eyes.

And wear a f*cking mask.