Mirsky: Don't Turn A Blind Eye

On June 1, 2020, Donald Trump dispersed a peaceful protest in Washington, D.C. to clear the way for his photo op at St. John’s Episcopal Church in Lafayette Square which fell victim to some fires started the night before. The unarmed protesters were met with tear gas and flash grenades and violence in a display that was seemingly unprovoked.

These facts were reported by NPR, The New York Times, and Fox News, among many other news sources, all of them confirming this incident. I mention the wide coverage of this story because as we all know, our news outlets are almost never without bias. The cited Fox News headline reads “Rubio defends Trump after criticism over St. John’s ‘photo op’” and its contents break from the conventional rules of writing hard news: write all information in order of descending importance. In following the outlet’s right-leaning political agenda, the article describes misleading statements by Marco Rubio to excuse Trump before confirming the frankly disgraceful behavior of the president and the authorities involved.

For any conservatives reading with a popped vein, I’ll comfort you. I did not intend to single out this example of a right-wing blunder to satisfy my own left-leaning beliefs. I selected this as clear evidence that your major news stations; CNN, MSNBC, and Fox News; will not always tell you the straight truth, even when your president is putting peaceful protesters in harm’s way to show materialistic solidarity with Christianity. Both the media and your president are actively working to radicalize and confuse you in an attempt to gain the power of your attention. Our current political landscape fits a metaphor we saw in theaters 12 years ago: the American people are the two-faced Harvey Dent strapped to a hospital bed while the Donald and fake news corporations are a nihilistic clown, putting a gun of outrage in our hands, waiting to see us fail. They want you to be angry so that you cannot speak.

I find it necessary to address opposing opinions of Trump’s recent behavior, claiming that protesters were in danger of violating a 7pm curfew. The attack on these Americans lasted for half an hour before 7pm on live television and was declared shameful by the Mayor of Washington D.C., and denounced by the bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Washington. If you are among those deeming the coronavirus-induced stay-at-home orders unlawful, will you apply a double standard to this curfew order? If you’ve been alarmed and focused on the images of people rioting and looting and burning down the world around them, I encourage you not to turn a blind eye to the many stories circulating of police violently arresting law-abiding protestors and camera crews of the press all over the country, or inflicting permanent wounds with rubber bullets. The government-sanctioned perpetrators of violence, curfew or no curfew, have no innocence, and they are being led by our commander-in-chief.

Even if you truly have no sympathy or empathy for the Black Lives Matter movement, I beg of you: imagine this was a protest for your right to bear arms. Imagine this was a protest for your freedom of speech. The Black Lives Matter movement is fighting for racial equality. And the outrage over George Floyd? Many of the people in the streets are protesting for the right to life, for all individuals. With acknowledgment of the many peaceful protests that may be garnering less of your attention, do Donald Trump’s actions still seem acceptable to you?

These damning words, “He did not pray”, straight from the mouth of bishop Mariann E. Budde who witnessed the attack, falls in line with the narrative Trump has written throughout the course of this public outrage. His authoritarian “law and order” mandate and prior threats that “when the looting starts, the shooting starts” do nothing to calm the growing number of outraged Americans on both sides of the aisle. He has successfully trolled America for the past 5 years, and it has been sad to see this behavior from a sitting president treated as a partisan issue. When the man in the oval office is stoking the flames of a long-brewing race war, we should all be afraid.

Black Lives Matter. Will you stay informed? Will you help?