This was the Barack Obama the world had come to know over his two terms as President of the United States. In a statement delivered on social media this man of unique principle made his thoughts known to the world and more importantly to the people of El Paso, Texas, and Dayton, Ohio.
He is still the concerned eloquent President he ever was. Capable of consoling words that the current incumbent could only ever dream of delivering: comforting words that mattered in the aftermath of yet another horrible shooting.
Yes, the incumbent President, also spoke from a teleprompter, using words calculated to defect any blame from him, to not refer to the obvious cause of the massacres. Guns.
The comparison between the two presidents could not be more stark. With Obama we have a sense of understanding, of one individual giving consolation to another.
It is fair to say that Obama had his share of frequent horrific massacres however, he always confronted them firstly with empathy for the victims and their families and secondly with a clear statement of cause: thirdly with measures of prevention together with moral clarity during his eight years as President.
His haters, and there were many, who say he did nothing, never admitted that he only ever had a window of 5 months when he controlled both houses thus rendering much of his tenure a lost cause. Against him was a Conservative party determined to vote against every bill he put up. They even signed an agreement to do so.
Individuals like Trump who embrace a racist white supremacy ideology cannot understand a call for tolerance and diversity that should be the hallmark of American democracy.
Where a call for bi partisan action is paramount if the sanctity of life is to live on instead of devaluing it, as Trump is inclined to.
Although not pure of heart we in Australia fail to understand why some white Americans see a necessity to act so insanely, so violently in order to maintain such a misguided sense of superiority.
In the entirety of his eight years as President I cannot ever remember a loss of clarity where he expressed compassion and heartfelt sympathy followed by an identification of the problem and the solutions possible.
Conservatives, in reality, only ever offered more of the same. Another massacre without a defined date.
Trump’s obvious racism, his constant vilification of immigrants together with his constant call of white superiority by violence offers no solution. His personal moral code towards women is sick and disgusting.
Writing in The Atlantic, David Graham reminds us that Obama is still presidential, Trump is all a President shouldn’t be:
” … whilst Trump’s efforts at consoling and uniting are intermittent and clumsy, it feels as though the role of president is vacant, and Obama is sliding right back into it by habit—his and the nation’s.”
The President alluded to the mental illness of the shooters. Obama had legislated to prevent anyone with a history of mental illness from purchasing guns. Trump reinstated it. Why did he do so?
Read carefully Obama’s language as it condemns Trump’s racial and ethnic hatred and violence without naming him.
“We should soundly reject language coming out of the mouths of any of our leaders that feeds a climate of fear and hatred or normalizes racist sentiments; leaders who demonize those who don’t look like us, or suggest that other people, including immigrants, threaten our way of life, or refer to other people as sub-human, or imply that America belongs to just one certain type of people.”
Indeed it is masterly prose from a former president walking a fine line between condemnation and occupying a place above it.
America is a huge and complicated country. Its success has been born of the annihilation of one race and the enslavement of another.
It goes without saying that they would be a greater nation with more men like Obama … and less like Trump.
Compare Obama’s tears to Trump’s thumbs-up after a mass murder. One of those was a president, the other is an opportunist. Obama made the killings about the victims, Trump … about himself. #Resist #ImpeachDonaldTrumpNOW #VoteBlueToEndThisNightmare
— Michael Taylor 🇦🇺🏴 🖤💛❤️ (@AusIndiMedia) August 8, 2019
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My thought for the day
It is time that those with the capacity to change laws that might prevent the mass murder of people and refuse to do so were made to account. After all they are as guilty or as mad, whatever the case, as the perpetrator himself.
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