MARY MITCHELL,
Idon’t think of Donald Trump as my president. When I look at him, all I see is an angry white man barreling down on me with guns loaded, swinging a rope.
So I don’t look.
But his tweets attacking four Democratic women of color expose a level of disrespect that is so frightening, I took a peep.
These congresswomen must be hitting all the marks, because this is what Trump tweeted:
“Why don’t they go back and help fix the totally broken and crime infested places from which they came. Then come back and show us how it is done,” Trump tweeted — the words dripping with sarcasm.
“These places need your help badly, you can’t leave fast enough. I’m sure that Nancy Pelosi would be very happy to quickly work out free travel arrangements!”
The women Trump was referring to are U.S. Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., Ayanna Pressley, DMass., and Rashida Tlaib, D-Mich.
This incident reminds me of one troubling scene I witnessed three decades ago.
I was working at a large law firm.
The young men in the mailroom were all black. They pushed a cart to deliver the mail. Sometimes they did their job quickly, dropping mail silently onto a huge shiny desk.
Sometimes they lingered a bit, talking smack with the secretary outside the office. But one young man had a different way. As he pushed the cart along meandering hallways, it was: “Good morning, sir,” and “How are you?” all the way.
One day, one of the partners, a woman, which was a rarity, complained about the young man saying “good morning” to her. I couldn’t believe it.
In her eyes, this young man wasn’t good enough to speak.
That’s how Trump always comes off when it comes to black and brown people.
He dismissed the four congresswomen
like they didn’t have a right to speak. All of the women Trump targeted are U.S. citizens. Three of the women were born here.
But in Trump’s eyes, they are like the young man who pushed the mail cart.
I keep waiting for the revolution, and I’m not talking about guns and weapons.
I’m waiting to see a majority of Americans rise up and say enough of this ridiculousness.
I’m waiting for the beguiled men and women to see through this farce.
I’m waiting to hear the sound of the trumpet announcing that the march has begun toward the White House to run the rascals out.
I thought for sure Trump’s malicious threats to commence immigration raids in major cities would do it.
In Chicago and other cities, demonstrators marched through the streets, rallying on the side of migrants and other undocumented persons.
But that’s not enough.
We need a revolution, one fought with the sword of truth.
Immigrants founded this country. This country was built on the backs of the enslaved.
Despite the wrongs it has committed on its own soil, the USA has been able to inspire hope in places where there was none.
Under the Trump administration, hope has turned into fear.
And that seems to be what he wants. Because although Trump bragged that the ICE raids were “very successful” and “many were taken out Sunday, there wasn’t a mass deportation like the one he threatened, Politico reported.
Thank God for that.
Still, Trump has a way of bringing out the ugliness in us.
His remarks — that there were some “very fine people on both sides” after a woman was killed when a neo-Nazi drove into counter-protesters during a white nationalist rally in Charlottesville — told us all we needed to know.
On Monday, James A. Fields Jr., 22, received a second life sentence plus 419 years in prison for killing Heather Heyer and injuring other protesters.
Now, the man in the high tower is holding immigrants and their dreams for a new life hostage.
Pressley hit the nail on the head in her response to Trump’s racist attack.
“He does not embody the grace, the empathy, the compassion, the integrity that that office requires and that the American people deserve,” she said during a news conference with the other three congresswomen.
Pressley also urged Americans “not to take the bait. This is a disruptive distraction from the issues of care, concern and consequence to the American people.”
I can’t stand to look at the man. When children are separated from parents and are warehoused in deplorable conditions, when human beings are rounded up like cattle, all because they want a better life, the revolution is overdue.