I've just watched, "John Lewis: Celebrating a Hero". It was a good special, considering the amount of time that was given to prepare it for the air to-night.This will not be a full review of this show, but there are a couple of things that I had issue with. The one big problem I had with it was the final music segment that featured Yolanda Adams and Wynonna Judd. The two women sang in different rooms, but Adams' backup singers were positioned in a way that kept them socially distanced, while Judd's were in close quarters.
I would like to remind you that one particularly virulent outbreak occurred in a church, when a choir member infected others. This is irresponsible behavior, in light of all of the other music and announcement spots that seemed to take care to keep people at a safe distance.
There were some very nice and heartfelt messages from Proctor and Gamble. What I hoped that I would NOT see outraged me more. Lewis made itself quite clear that he was a Democrat and I saw an ad for David Perdue. I wasn't pleased about that, however, when a Trump-endorsed ad aired during this hour, I must confess, I was furious.
There was no love lost between the two men. Lewis made his feelings plain about how he felt about the current administration.
"Asked whether he would try to forge a relationship with the president-elect, Lewis said that he believes in forgiveness, but added, "it's going to be very difficult. I don't see this president-elect as a legitimate president."
When pressed to explain why, he cited allegations of Russian hacks during the campaign that led to the release of internal documents from the Democratic National Committee and Hillary Clinton’s campaign co-chairman, John Podesta."*
Trump (wisely) did not attend Lewis' funeral, he did tweet out condolences to "...he his family(sic)", however, he could have served himself well by keeping a respectful silence or perhaps saying, "no comment" or saying that while they did not agree, he admired a life of service and patriotism. Instead, when asked he said:
*"I don't know. I really don't know. I don't know. I don't know John Lewis. He chose not to come to my inauguration," Trump said during an interview with Axios on HBO that aired Monday when asked how he thought history would remember Lewis, adding that he probably never met the the late congressman.
"I can't say one way or the other" Trump said when asked if he thought Lewis was impressive.
"I find a lot of people impressive. I find many people not impressive," he continued. "He didn't come -- he didn't come to my inauguration. He didn't come to my state of the union speeches. And that's OK. That's his right. He should've come. I think he made a big mistake."*
So what upset me?
The Trump for President ad depicting a Woman of Color holding placards stating why she won't vote for Biden. As you may have gathered, I will not vote for him in the fall, but during this one hour of tribute, airing this as at this time smacks of pure and unabashed vengeful pettiness. it is the green monster that reared its head when Senator John McCain died. It's a middle finger.
When the deal goes down, it is a sin to dislike Trump and you won't escape his wrath by dying.
I've said this to many people, now I am writing it down. What will be the legacy of this man? He is legitimizing rude behavior, mockery, condescension and were he a private citizen, it would not matter as much to me but...he is now running the country. He has set an awful example for the youth of America. A child could make fun of someone who is different from them, call them names or lie a great deal and before punishment was administered, a child could say, "But, the president did it!"
Senator John Lewis stood for what he believed in and put his own body on the line to do it. He held two degrees and was an ordained Baptist minister. He was awarded over fifty honorary degrees. He was married for forty-four years to one woman. He was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
Through all of this, he struggles to find Senator Lewis "impressive", but he did this THIS guy was "amazing".
I iterate: all of what Lewis has done merits an "I don't know", which sadly, is restrained, for him. What does this tell a child? YOU MUST LIKE ME. Even if your child has died fighting for his country, you have to LIKE ME before I compliment you. We are being torn apart by virulent partisanship, a horrible, virulent disease and while Trump says that he never met Senator Lewis, he signed this bill to preserve National Parks, which was originally sponsored by...Senator John Lewis.
He could have said that a man he never met helped get a bill he signed into law, thus proving that his passing will not end his legacy. It might be considered in poor taste to be disrespectful of the dead.
But the president did it!
*Sources: NBC NEWS, CNN
No comments:
Post a Comment