Bloody Sunday at Selma, AL, March 7, 1965, 58 years ago.
Horses, dogs and Alabama state troopers first blocked and then attacked approximately 600 marchers attempting to cross the Edmund Pettus Bridge in their peaceful pursuit of civil rights.
As the participants took their first tentative steps, the head cracking began, followed by the unleashing of dogs, and charges of horses ridden by state police. Of course, some of the uniformed law enforcement personnel preferred to walk into the crowd armed with billy clubs that they liberally used to injure and maim many of their fellow Americans.
The bloody event was all over in minutes but not the issue. As an example, I was sent to Montgomery, AL in 1972 to attend Squadron Officer School at Maxwell Air Force Base and I still remember seeing separate water fountains in downtown Montgomery near the Capitol building.
Worse, today in various state legislatures, over 165 bills are pending action that in one way or the other attempts to restrict voting. These include the reduction of hours the polls are open; the days before election people can vote early; onerous ID requirements; reduction of drop-off sites for ballots; ad infinitum.
As most people know, this wrong-headed hysteria about making sure only eligible voters can vote is easily traced to America’s biggest loser, former President Donald J. Trump, who refused to accept the will of the people after losing his race for re-election in 2020 when challenger Joe Biden won by over seven million popular votes and 314 electors – the exact number Trump received in 2016.
Now millions of MAGA morons, including hundreds who stormed our national Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, continue to doubt the authenticity of the Biden Administration which, of course, erodes the very foundation of our democracy.
Sadly, America’s biggest egomaniac is back on the scene having spent Saturday speaking to his most ardent supporters at the annual CPAC convention gathered just outside of Washington. Trump then garnered 62% of the attending zealots’ votes in a straw poll with runner-up, Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida coming in a distant second with only 20%.
More broadly, it is reported that up to 70% of all Republicans remain in The Donald’s camp, notwithstanding his well-known flaws related to money, women, bankruptcy, honesty, bill paying, truthfulness and other human frailties too numerous to mention here.
In closing, democracy is not a commodity one can purchase, or a thing to be counted, or even a human condition. It is simply an idea that came from the minds of men that has evolved over many generations into what it is known as today … the very finest form of government ever devised.
For those who treat it with any less reverence than it deserves, they are not just playing with fire and their own future, but that of their children and grandchildren.
If you don’t think it is that fragile, click on this History channel link and look at the photos or perhaps reflect on the lives Ukrainians have lost defending their democracy under attack by the dictator Vladimir Putin. He is a killer, a KGB agent, a monster who has personally murdered, a man as awful as predecessors Lenin or Stalin and importantly to readers, just a human being whose No. 1 goal is to destroy democracy, specifically our democracy.
So, MAGA believers, don’t you think it’s about time you spent your time defending our democracy instead of being compliant fools for a man who admires Putin, who trusts him more than our own intelligence agencies, and who has always put his own needs above anything else, including you and yours?
