I thought I was in a bad mood but it’s been a few years so I guess this is who I am now. – Anonymous

Today’s independent commentary deals with these people/issues:

* El Paso & Dayton
* Trump & Cummings

EL PASO & DAYTON:

Back in 2012 when the names of the slain children from Sandy Hook Elementary school were read by President Obama at the memorial service, I had hope that our country would come together to try to stop gun violence and these mass shootings.

Charlotte. Daniel. Olivia. Josephine. Ana. Dylan. Madeleine. Catherine. Chase. Jesse. James. Grace. Emilie. Jack. Noah. Caroline. Jessica. Benjamin. Avielle. Allison.

They were six and seven years old.

Nothing changed and now, almost seven years later, we have grown accustomed to mass shootings and most of America does not pay attention unless it is happening in our town.

This weekend it happened in El Paso, Texas, and Dayton, Ohio.

Sooner or later, it probably will happen in your town because nothing is being done to stop it. These days it is recommended that when people are out in public, they should check for escape routes or places to seek shelter when the bullets start flying.

USA Today reported that as gunfire ripped through America in an unprecedented 24 hours, a bleak milestone in a nation pocked by gun violence was marked: There have been 251 mass shootings in 2019, according to the Gun Violence Archive. (I checked the website before publishing; there are now 254 mass shootings).

Is the current President responsible for any of this? I believe that President Trump has fueled the flames of racism in our country as well as promoted white nationalism. Trump’s hatred could be the cause of some of the shootings.

Most of the Presidential candidates had something to say about the latest mass shootings, but Beto O’Rourke probably said it best:

We’ve got to acknowledge the hatred, the open racism that we’re seeing. There is an environment of it … We see it from our commander-in-chief. He is encouraging this. He doesn’t just tolerate it, he encourages it.

As for the President, he said, “hate has no place in our country” and “We have to get it stopped, this has been going on for years and we have to get it stopped.” He then said, “This is also a mental illness problem,” Trump said of the mass shootings. “These are people that are very, very seriously mentally ill.”

Maybe one of these days (and I hope it is soon) we as a country will come together and demand changes that will help to protect our citizens from these mass shootings.

Don’t hold your breath waiting for these changes.

The only thing you can do is make sure you look for escape routes and places to hide when you are out in public.

TRUMP & CUMMINGS:

There was a burglary at the Baltimore home of U.S. Representative Elijah Cummings recently. President Donald Trump didn’t let the moment pass without sending out a sarcastic tweet:

Really bad news! The Baltimore house of Elijah Cummings was robbed. Too bad!

When Trump was questioned about it he said, “The tweet itself was really just really a repeat of what I heard on the news. I know his house was robbed and I thought that was too bad. That was really not meant as a wise guy tweet.” (CNN)

Maybe Trump is just ignorant enough to think people would believe that.

If Trump hadn’t used exclamation points his excuse might be more believable. The exclamation point is used to show anger, joy, excitement, and surprise.

Next time maybe Trump should add “LOL” or a sad face emoji to make his message clearer.

##END##