In the end, the people who mattered the most – the only ones who really mattered – were treated as if they didn’t matter at all.
And that’s a damn disgrace.
U.S. Army Sgt. La David T. Johnson, 25, of Miami Gardens, Fla., and three other soldiers were killed in an ambush in Niger, Africa, on Oct. 4.
He leaves behind his pregnant wife, Myeshia Johnson; two young children; and an aunt, Cowanda Jones-Johnson, and her husband, Richard, who raised La David after his biological mother, Samara, died when he was a child.
These are the only people in this story who matter (along with the other fallen soldiers and their families, of course).
But somehow, these folks became one big political football kicked around by the most incompetent and corrupt president in our history, his White House of excuse-makers and a probably sincere but over-zealous Congresswoman.
How does something like this happen?
In a nutshell, Trump was questioned on Monday by the press about why he had not yet contacted the families of the four dead soldiers. He then took a shot at his favorite punching bag – former President Barrack Obama – claiming that Obama had not often made such calls to families.
This was immediately disputed by former Obama administration officials, who said he engaged families of fallen service members in various ways throughout his presidency.
This, not surprisingly, led Trump to go ever lower by using the deceased son of his Chief of Staff John Kelly as a political prop by pointing out that Obama never called Kelly, a retired Marine Corps general, when his son was killed in action.
It gets even worse. When Trump finally did call La David’s family on Tuesday they were on their way to the airport where his remains were being delivered. Also in the car, listening on speakerphone, was Democratic Congresswoman Rep. Frederica S. Wilson, a long-time family friend.
Soon after the call Wilson announced that Trump had upset Myeshia, in part because he said at one point that La David “knew what he was signing up for, but I guess it hurts anyway.” Cowanda Jones-Johnson later said that Wilson’s account of the conversation was accurate and that she also felt Trump was disrespectful to their family.
By this point a sincere apology by Trump for anything he said that may have upset the family, along with kind and positive words about La David, probably could have nipped this thing in the bud.
Of course, that didn’t happen.
Trump went on the defensive, claiming Wilson wasn’t telling the truth. Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders, truth-challenged daughter of that well-known lying fake Christian Mike Huckabee, defended Trump.
But the president wasn’t done yet, sending out the big gun – Kelly – to defend him, talk about his own experience of losing a son in war and, for good measure, perform a hatchet job on Wilson.
Trump then followed up with more attacks on Wilson, despite the fact that none of his spokespeople ever denied that he said what she claimed he said.
Boy, that was one big nutshell
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I don’t believe for a minute that the president intentionally wanted to offend or upset the family, but I can easily see how that could have happened.
Trump is the most stupid and inarticulate president I’ve seen in my lifetime. Add the fact that he lacks even a shred of empathy or caring about anyone else, and you can see how it wouldn’t be easy for him to make a sincere-sounding condolence call.
The problem is made worse by the fact he’s incapable of admitting a mistake or apologizing for anything, and that his default reaction to any kind of criticism is to lash out.
So starting with his obsession with denigrating his predecessor Obama, and his immaturity when things don’t go his way, it’s hard to imagine things not spiraling out of control.
And this might be a good time to ask why in the world would you make the call when the family is on its way to pick up La David’s remains? Could there be a worse and more emotional time to do so?
Sanders, who emits about as much warmth and empathy as a serial killer and who has no credibility with anyone who has even the slightest grip on reality, didn’t help. And neither did Kelly.
Despite deserving a great deal of respect for his military service and the ultimate sacrifice he and his family made in the loss of their son, Kelly once again showed himself to be an apologist/enabler for Trump. It turns out his attack on Wilson included false statements about a speech she made a few years ago.
Kelly has done nothing but diminish himself working for Trump. There’s a theory he stays to protect the country from possible Trump military overreactions. Fair enough, but he’s not doing anything for his own reputation in the process as he continues to try to give legitimacy to an unfit president.
Wilson, putting whatever her motivations are aside, wasn’t helping a grieving family by thrusting them more into the public spotlight at this time. Her actions seem to be a combination of bad judgement, poor timing and political grandstanding.
So, as you can see, there’s plenty of blame to go around in this fiasco.
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This whole incident has been an embarrassment to our country. The fact that our executive branch of government is this dysfunctional is frightening when you consider how many more complicated things it has to deal with besides the basic act of human decency, respect and kindness of offering condolences to a grieving military family.
It’s past time we realized that people can’t give you what they don’t have, and this president and his administration can’t give us the kind of strong moral competent leadership our country needs and deserves.
But the saddest part is this: Four young men died in service of their country, the ultimate act of bravery, sacrifice and patriotism, and it all gets lost in the shuffle.
The lasting memory of all this, as it should be, will be the heartbreaking video of a pregnant Myeshia Johnson, crying as she leans over the flag-draped casket of the man she thought she’d spend the rest of her life with, while their young daughter stands stoically beside her.
Until we have leaders that see and care about the La David and Myeshia Johnsons of the world, instead of just political and personal agendas, we’ll never be where we need to be as a country.
And we’ll be less and less deserving of the kind of sacrifices La David and his four comrades made for all of us.
You can read all my blog posts at Musings of a Nobody
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