Today was the first day of the Derek Chauvin trial. As you recall he is one of the police officers charged with murder in the death of George Floyd. The trial is being televised on Court TV, but you can also watch on the internet on various sites. I will provide a link here to Courttv.com for those who may want to tune in to some of the arguments and testimony.
Derek Chauvin was found guilty on all 3 charges.
If you are someone who still listens to the news or reads the newspapers you will have noticed the rise in attacks on Asian-Americans in the United States. As the pandemic rages on they have been made the scapegoat. Sadly, this is not new, this has happened before. To our country's shame.
Fear is nothing new. Nor is blaming those who have absolutely nothing to do with the circumstances in which we find ourselves. For Japanese Americans during World War II it meant displacement from their homes into internment camps.
But this is not just the fault of those who have perpetrated these attacks, it is also the fault of those who have encouraged them, and those who have stood by and said nothing. While our ideals are admirable the behavior of some of our fellow Americans is not. It is, or should be, a source of shame for all of us who do really believe in our democracy. Patriotism is not just about flying a flag from the back of your pickup. It is about living up to the ideals our country was created for.
Listen to what true patriotism means.
The US Senate just passed a Covid relief bill. It is designed to help the American public weather the pandemic and economic collapse of some businesses due to forced shutdowns. It will provide economic assistance to local governments, schools, businesses and ordinary people. Unfortunately for some it will be too late. It will also provide more funds for administering the vaccine. A notable circumstance of this piece of legislation was that it passed without any Republican support. I find this to be a sad statement of our political climate.
While we have our differences, we are all Americans. We need to support each other in these difficult times. We need to take the vaccine if it is offered to us so that we provide a living barrier to the virus. We need to support our local businesses so that they survive. While some states are lifting mask requirements we can continue to wear them until we are absolutely sure the virus has been defeated. We need to put aside our political differences and put our country first.
Years from now people will look back on this time period and ask, what did you do?
