The police entered the apartment in the middle of the night, unannounced and supposedly looking for a criminal. What they encountered was a man sleeping on a couch wrapped up in a comforter. The police kicked the couch and startled the man out of his sleep. Woozy headed, he instinctively reached for his gun. The police spotted the gun and immediately shot him dead. The victim was not the criminal the intruders were looking for. So, another case of someone dying because of someone else’s incompetence is in the daily news. Young Amir Locke was in the wrong place at the wrong time. Another tragic incident, another senseless death, another mother grieving for her son and seeking justice. When will all these perpetual nightmares end?
Learning from our experiences should make occurrences like this less frequent. Instead, they seem to be happening more often. And Republican politicians, in general, seem to be getting much worse, too. Starting with the Donald who, among some so-called Republicans, is still a prevailing force. How anyone in their right mind can still support this corrupt “wannabeelike Putin” former president is astounding!
Trump admitted it, and so did his buddy Moscow Mitch McConnell. Trump wanted to stay in power by any means possible. His last resort was to prod his supporters into invading the Capitol and preventing the peaceful transfer of power. He wanted Vice President Mike Pence to shred the 81 million votes that rejected him. He wanted to confiscate voting machines and suppress the mail-in ballots of minorities. He stupidly assembled fake electors to represent him and grant him another term. He still believes his own “big lie,” that the election was stolen. The narcissist still can’t believe the majority of Americans don’t want him to be our president anymore. Why some people still support this guy is a mystery to millions.
“It was not an insurrection,” they say, “it was an epiphany, it was a walking tour of our Capitol, it was legitimate political discourse.” Two honorable Republican representatives, Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger, were censured for doing what the American people elected them to do: seek the truth and prosecute those who urinated, defecated and desecrated our Capitol. They stood up to the Donald because they know it’s their job to protect our country, our Constitution and our democracy. Republicans in name only, on the other hand, are against any investigations. They already know what happened. They were the enablers! They were participants! What ails them most is that the insurrection failed. Oh, they will try again, some say, so it’s up to sensible Americans to stop them.
If the above facts don’t make us think more clearly about who we are and who we want to represent us, then I’m guessing nothing will.
What’s happening to us? Are we not the most intelligent animal species on this Earth? Is COVID-19 also polluting our reasoning capacity? Are we human beings rapidly evolving in reverse? Will we once again, a few thousand years from now, be happily enjoying our lives swinging from tree to tree? For Mother Earth, is this a good thing or a bad thing? Just asking.
Italo J. Zarate lives in Brownsville
