And so the Republican National Convention has begun in Cleveland,Ohio,in what seems to be the most frightening time I can ever recall.Forty nine bodies in Orlando have hardly grown cold.Five police officers in Dallas have been slain,perhaps in response to the killings of black suspects by police officers.Those deaths were followed only two days ago by three more policemen being killed in Baton Rouge,Louisiana.And ,not to be forgotten,we've just had another mass killing in France,perhaps as a result of terrorist ideology,but perhaps not.And there was the attempted coup in Turkey as well.All of this seems to be set in the general environment of hatred being directed at not just American,but western values.
American elections are never without controversy,and,I suppose they should not be.But this time around the atmosphere seems like a powder keg,and,as a fifty something,I don't ever recall such a dangerous atmosphere at election time.It seems as though everyone is rightly on edge.Because it is evident that America is very deeply divided,racially,politically and socially.So here I am,just a relatively short distance away,across two Great lakes,just waiting for the rising columns of smoke to make themselves visible.
I'm told the the theme of today's addresses at the convention is to be "Lets make America Safe Again". Very timely indeed if not somewhat ironic,given what appears to be going on in Cleveland as I write this.A view of several videos has made it clear that security is tight,perhaps unprecedented.Given the times that seems quite appropriate,but the picture really,with all things considered is hardly one of safety.
Making America safe is part of the slogan that Trump has been spouting for months now:Make America Great Again.True,I hardly think a nation can be great if it's not safe from threat both from without and from within.So let me ask.When has America ever been safe?When is the last time it's been safe? And,by safe,I mean safe from crippling fear as well,perhaps most especially from crippling fear.
We should also be asking,and,I'm sure it's not really being asked on the convention floor,for whom,or for what is America safe? Mr.Trump,do you mean to make America safe in every community nationwide or just in those gated communities in which people such as yourself inhabits?Or does making America safe include Ferguson,Missouri,South Bronx,Compton and South Chicago as well?Because I could well argue that those communities have never been safe,are not safe now and don't look to be heading that way in these current time.Especially for African Americans.If it were,there would be no Black Lives Matter.So,if making America safe doesn't begin with an ideology that holds all life to be sacred,and affirms life as the right of all,it will not lead to safety.America will be on the road to Hell instead.
Take a look at who all has gathered in Cleveland.There are,I'm told some fifty thousand people affiliated with the convention itself,Republicans,such as they are,divided though they may be.And every variety of interest or advocacy group imaginable.All this takes place in a state with open carry gun laws,and that is a huge concern.It's not so much Black Lives Matters,as anti police as they seem.Many are branding them terrorists,but I'm willing to wait and see for right now.I understand how they might hold the world view that they do,but I can't say as they appear to be active terrorists,at least yet.A far bigger concern to me is The New Black Panther Party,a group that seems to articulate racial hatred with every breath and is committed to revolutionary ends,to establishing a separate nation characterized by "Black Power". Not only have they made it clear that they intend to attend,but also that they intend to exercise their second amendment rights.And it would be foolhardy to suppose that groups opposing them would not be present as well,also intending to take full advantage of their own rights.
And so Cleveland would appear to be an armed camp.It would be bad optics for Republicans to oppose open carry laws,or to ask that they be suspended,given the traditional alliance between the political right and the gun lobby.And certainly Republicans don't want us to think,or at least to think very hard about any possible erosion of rights in general under a Republican regime.But I fear that that may be the very real outcome of this particular convention.
Perhaps this convention will pass in orderly fashion.Perhaps dissent can be accommodated and there will be no serious incidents,no loss of life,no violent rioting.But to me,right now Cleveland looks more like the Tehran of the early 1980's than it does a modern and open American city.But go on and prove me wrong.Because making America safe again,means making the rest of the world safer as well.That's the challenge over the next few days.
Blyndpapaya.
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