Yesterday I spoke about lines having been drawn. In Washington, D.C. on Friday, they were painted.
Open warfare has broken out in the nation’s capital, not on the streets but between the White House and Mayor Muriel Bowser. She has led the effort to keep that from spilling into actual confrontations on the streets, but she may have abandoned that as a strategy. At the very least she upped the ante in a very large way. “BLACK LIVES MATTER” was painted in highway yellow in letters 50 feet high down 16th Street, leading directly to LaFayette Square and the White House. I have seen it reported it is visible from space, but today that is less shocking than it once was.
It was definitely visible in the Oval Office. It was on TV wasn’t it? His reaction was harsh and threatening of ratcheting up deployments of the regular forces, but we’ve seen that Paper Tiger before. He loves to threaten his rivals, just likes the general aura of chaos and being perceived as a tough-guy strongman.
But if someone seriously gets under his skin, Correspondence Dinner level of outrage, he was capable of anything. Would this rise to that level? We don’t know yet. The early signs were no, but for some reason I’m not trusting this. It feels like he’s looking off the safety and going for the long ball on the other side. A trick, a fake. But we’ll see.
For the Mayor’s part she has been at the helm of a force that has largely shown restraint and protests have been vocal but peaceful when overseen by the locals. The disruptions have come at the hands of Federal forces controlled by the DOJ, led by chief toady Attorney General William Barr who took control of the clearing of LaFayette Square for the President’s photo op with someone else’s Bible at someone else’s church. A critical operation if ever there was one. He had initially taken responsibility for the operation. A day later he was saying he was not involved.
Today was like government sanctioned graffiti on a scale only imaginable by Christo, may he rest in peace. It was bold, grand, celebratory and had not just a little bit of rascal to it. I applaud it loudly, but one of Trump’s avowed life tenets is that if someone gets over on you, hit them ten times harder. He has repeated this often in interviews throughout his career, even committed it to print in “The Book”. That gives me pause. I can’t imagine what he might do, and worse, I can’t imagine what he wouldn’t do. Nothing seems beyond the realm of possibility. We already know how petty an errand as a campaign video could trigger such an overwhelming force. What if he had a more compelling motivation, from his point of view? What would he be capable of? My imagination is too limited to create a scenario I think he is incapable of.
So we will see. But the Mayor is speaking directly to her people. She is delivering a message of hope and alliance. We won’t be the enemy she seems to be saying. We will come out better on the other side.
Trump’s message is more like you will be better on the other side. He reiterated his intention to “dominate the streets” with overwhelming force. The optics are terrible, especially as the violence seems to be subsiding some, enough that several major cities, including the defiant D.C., had lifted curfews, lifting the boot rather than threatening to grind it in.
New Orleans Saints quarterback Drew Brees made a statement of support for People of Color but inexplicably added a codicil to his statements to say that in spite of that he would never be in favor of the kneeling that had happened in the NFL during the National Anthem protesting police brutality against minorities. He equated those protests to a disrespect for flag, troops and country.
The pushback was swift and brutal. Even his teammates, who would depend upon him as a leader on the field, found his comments unacceptable, tone deaf and symbolic of the problem itself. It was an instant firestorm that was viral before the send button returned to rest.
To Drew Brees’ credit, it broke through for him. As cynical an observer as I am, his epiphany seemed real. Something had changed for him because of what he heard from people he respected. Some blind spot in his understanding had been flooded with light, blindingly exposing a part of himself he had never seen, never recognized, but now could clearly be seen and understood as he examined the inherent privilege that had allowed him to make the initial statements that had blown up so badly. He knew why now, and he was actually sorry.
For those of you reading this and dismissing his apology as career self-defense, I honestly think this is different. What Drew experienced is the outcome all of us need to hope for, strive for, and celebrate when they occur. A national paradigm shift happening in one reachable soul at a time. The scales falling from our collective eyes. Drew allowed himself to be wrong publicly, vulnerable and imperfect and willing to become better. If any fault can be found in the apology it is overcome by the sincerity of the effort. Something changed for Drew.
President Trump took no time in ridiculing such sentiments, vilifying the quarterbacks evolution as weakness, appeasement in the face of evil. Self reflection at this time was an impediment to the strong arm of Justice, and he was very disappointed that the quarterback had called an audible, changed the play at the line of scrimmage. He doubled down on the narrative that the kneelers had been protesting the flag itself and by extension the troops that fought to defend the country it represents. He said the flag was to be revered and that Brees had been right to defend it. His change of heart was a mistake, an error of judgment.
Brees went on Instagram and tried something that people have been attempting for 70 years. He tried to educate the President. It is a thankless task, as Drew quickly learned. You can not educate an Oracle. It violates the very nature of an Oracle. They are the teachers, the keeper of all truth. Bow before Zod!
Had it all been for nothing? Would Drew Brees be a silly footnote in this moment of potential epiphany for a nation, or would he be a template for it, a display of the possibilities for progress on both a personal and a corporate level?
That’s really a microcosm of what is in the balance right now. Would understanding usher in reform, change on a systemic level as well as a human one, or would the status quo be protected with tear gas and billy clubs?
America has become the Edmund Pettus Bridge. Trump auditioned and easily won the role of George Wallace. The crowds massing on one side of the bridge are growing, appeasers no longer finding their positions tenable. Just as the marchers in Selma revealed a violence waiting to be loosed by the authorities, Trump is following the same manual, revealing a cruelty that he thought represented strength to the world, but instead exposed a system of apartheid.
Its been over 25 years since South African apartheid ended after years of negotiation.
Our negotiations have just begun.
Casting for the role of Nelson Mandela is ongoing.