“When darkness comes, there is a light at the end of the tunnel”

And suddenly the election of Donald Trump makes sense to me. The night he was elected I was so horrified, although I am as anti drug as one might be, I took an unprescribed xanax, not caring if the little blue oval pill would kill me. And for three and a half years, each and every day, I have tried like hell to come to terms with not just his election, but more so, a reconciliation in my mind over the thought process possessed by those who voted for him. It was Hillary that called his supporters The Deplorables, not me, and I still believe her use of that phrase might have been one of the biggest political blunders of all time. Is Donald Trump a racist? Is every person that voted for Donald Trump racist? Does every racist consider themselves as racist? No one knows what is in another’s heart, but we can make educated assumptions by examining an individual’s past behavior.

I was born and raised in NY. As you know, so was Donald Trump. He was always all about promoting himself, so if you lived in NY, it was impossible not to know who he was. From the get go, I viewed him as obnoxious, narcissistic, misogynistic, materialistic, and considered him suspiciously racially biased when I found out Fred and Donald Trump were sued for real estate discrimination in the 70′s. He was not someone I would want to associate with. Then I read he spent $85,000 on local ads condeming a group of teens who became collectively known as The Central Park Five, headlined “BRING BACK THE DEATH PENALTY. BRING BACK THE POLICE”, two weeks after the crime was committed. At the time I read between the lines. It seemed to me he was convicting these kids in an attempt to garnish support in the court of public opinion, before their due process. They were all found guilty, and in the end, they were all exonerated after spending many years in jail. The taste in my mouth for him went from bad to worse and that trend continued especially in reading about his business practices, his bankruptcies and the icing on the cake for me was his phoney birtherism attack on Barack Obama.

Before the election I assumed incorrectly that someone with his character would be elevated to the highest office in the world. But now it all makes sense when I see where we are now. Donald Trump has drawn a line in the sand creating two different Americas. Those for him. And those against him. How so? By condemning Colin Kaepernick and calling people who kneel for racial justice, sons of bithches, by putting children in cages, by calling African countries shit hole countries, by calling himself the Law and Order President, by saying “There were very fine people on both sides,” by banning Muslims from entering the country, by embracing police brutality on live tv in front of law enforcement officials at a ceremony on long island on July 28, 2017. Apparently Derek Chauvin, George Floyd’s killer made a deadly move right from that play book, and the list goes on and on. And then yesterday in the rose garden, he actually invoked George Floyd’s name saying “It’s a good day for him,” with reference to our economic numbers. I think even my eight year old grandson would understand that statement is moronic and compassionless. ENOUGH IS ENOUGH!

How can we know exactly what effect Donald Trump has had on current events? We can’t but, what we do know, what is happening today is happening under his watch, and although he is not a buck stops here kind of guy, ultimately as president he is responsible for the state of the union.

Finally, once and for all, largely or partly, aided and abetted by Donald Trump and his minions, our country is facing the ugly stain of racism that has been a source of injustice in our country for 400 years.

So thank you Donald Trump. I can finally say I see the good that can come from your presidency. Not the good in you, not in spite of you, but to some degree, because of you, on your watch, racial justice is upon the horizon.