Two Quotes to Consider

Two quotes for you to consider … Here’s one from yesterday’s posting (May 30) by Professor Heather Cox Richardson, touching upon the President’s absence: 

  “The protests have wiped from public discussion all the major stories that were distressing Trump: the deadly toll of the coronavirus and his administration’s abysmal response to the pandemic, the skyrocketing unemployment as the economy falters, and Friday’s revelations about his 2016 campaign team’s collaboration with Russian spies.

Second, the president has gone missing in the midst of this crisis. While presidents traditionally speak to the nation to try to reassure Americans in such times, neither he nor Republican leaders are trying to calm the nation.

Presumptive Democratic nominee Joe Biden late tonight stepped into the breach, issuing a statement. “Protesting such brutality is right and necessary. It’s an utterly American response. But burning down communities and needless destruction is not. Violence that endangers lives is not. Violence that guts and shutters businesses that serve the community is not. The act of protesting should never be allowed to overshadow the reason we protest. It should not drive people away from the just cause that protest is meant to advance.”

And here are the words of Martin Luther King, spoken at Stanford University 53 years ago.  Things have not changed.

   “Certain conditions continue to exist in our society, which must be condemned as vigorously as we condemn riots. But in the final analysis, a riot is the language of the unheard. And what is it that America has failed to hear? It has failed to hear that the plight of the Negro poor has worsened over the last few years. It has failed to hear that the promises of freedom and justice have not been met. And it has failed to hear that large segments of white society are more concerned about tranquility and the status quo than about justice, equality and humanity. And so in a real sense our nation’s summers of riots are caused by our nation’s winters of delay. And as long as America postpones justice, we stand in the position of having these recurrences of violence and riots over and over again.”

Donald Trump buries his head in the sand, glad that Covid19 is no longer front page news.  And his Trumpublican supporters in Congress continue to support him, out of either fear or stupidity.

Joe Biden speaks like a President should.  And Martin Luther King explains what has gone wrong with America.  Heed his words.

Two Quotes to Consider.

JL