Just imagine
After engaging in a schoolyard-bully exchange of insults with North Korea’s dictator, President Trump called for a boycott of National Football League games. He’s upset because some players—who have a constitutional right to express their beliefs, a right symbolized by the flag—have been taking a knee during the national anthem to protest police brutality and income inequality.
(Guess who took millions of dollars from NFL owners for his inaugural fund, a fund that still has not been audited? Excess money has not been donated to charity, as promised.)
Imagine if Trump had instead used all that energy against the ravages of Hurricane Maria, urging citizens to provide monetary support and volunteer aid to the Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico’s 3.4 million Americans who are without power, communications, water, jobs, stores, or a viable future on the island.
It took Trump days to acknowledge the killer hurricane’s devastation. Not until somebody whispered “Katrina” did Trump trumpet Puerto Rico’s horror. Then he decided a visit from him would be just what the ravaged island needed.
(Guess who once promised he would deliver “the best” to Puerto Rico and salvage a failing government-funded golf resort there but instead took his profits and left the island $33 million poorer? Until now, Trump’s attention to Puerto Rico had been to rant against a “bailout” for the bankrupt territory.)
Imagine instead of repeatedly repudiating Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., Trump had rallied the nation to support a war hero who is in the fight of his life against brain cancer.
Imagine if, after spending two years brazenly chanting “lock her up” about Hillary Clinton’s use of a private email account, Trump expressed regret that six members of his White House staff, including his daughter and son-in-law, have been using private emails for government business. Oh, the hypocrisy. Oh, the cynicism.
Imagine if instead of praising our sworn enemy, Russia, Trump condemned it and its rapacious leader Vladimir Putin for interfering in America’s 2016 presidential election.
Imagine if instead of issuing even more discriminatory bans on immigrants, hoping the Supreme Court will support him, Trump worked to remedy a broken immigration system and talked to Americans about how this great country was built by immigrants from all countries.
Imagine if instead of constantly appealing to the worst in us, Trump tried to uplift us, appeal to the best in us and worked to regain the respect of other nations. Yeah, I know. The human imagination doesn’t extend that far.