Dear Joe,
I wish I could sit down with you face to face and explain why so many of us were offended by the UFC fight on the South Lawn of the White House.
For me, it had nothing to do with the UFC or who showed up for the fights. The brand you and Dana have built is a bona fide American success story. More power to you. As for the fighters, in my book, anyone brave enough to put it all on the line in the arena is remarkable to witness. Their dedication and discipline inspire me. I don’t understand anyone who can’t admire that.
And as for the people who attended, I, for one, love Shane Gillis. I think he’s hilarious and brilliant. It was a show. A once-in-a-lifetime spectacle. I can’t blame anyone for wanting to witness it firsthand.
My problem is that I believe some of our public spaces are sacred. And unlike many of the great powers that came before us, these American monuments belong to all of us. Not to whoever happens to hold power at the moment.
The White House does not belong to Donald Trump. It does not belong to any President. It belongs to the people. To treat it as Caesar treated the Colosseum is antithetical to everything our founding fathers fought for.
This is not Rome. Presidents are not emperors doling out bread and circuses for the peasants. The White House is the People’s House. This “celebration” could have happened in any stadium within a stone’s throw of the South Lawn. No one would have had an issue with it.
But that was obviously Donald Trump’s whole point. By holding the event on the South Lawn, what he was saying to the rest of us is:
“This is my house. I own it. I will do with it what I please. I’ll build a colosseum and have the gladiators fight under my gaze. I’ll tear down the East Wing. I’ll pave over the Rose Garden. I’ll cover everything in gold and marble. I’ll erase the names of all the men who came before me.”
The fights were an exhibition of imperial domination, not a celebration of our 250th anniversary as a democracy.
The White House is not Buckingham Palace. It is not the Palace of Versailles. It is not the Forbidden City of Beijing. It does not belong to an emperor, or a king, or a commissar.
The White House belongs to us. All of us. The person who sits behind the Resolute Desk in the Oval Office is nothing more than an honored guest. A temporary caretaker.
The President is our servant. Not our Caesar.
Respectfully, Hunter
P.S. Cage match between me and Don Jr.? Your call on the venue. Anywhere but the South Lawn.
I am 55 years old.
America is the only country I've ever known.
And I love my country.
When I was in school, I learned about the horrors of slavery. Sure, it was a limited education, but I totally got the gist of it.
We learned how people were taken from Africa, and how many DIED during the journey here, forced to labor in hot fields while being whipped, raped, deprived of education, and murdered.
In fact, when I was young, there was a mini-series on TV called Roots that depicted the brutality of slavery in horrifyingly explicit detail.
And then I did my OWN research, reading more books and watching more documentaries and movies.
But somehow, I was able to maintain my love of America. Despite all of the cruelty and brutality I had learned about, I was somehow able to figure out that the people alive in America today had NOTHING TO DO with slavery 200 years ago.
Somehow, I can still say the Pledge of Allegiance and sing the Star Spangled Banner, no problem.
But dishonest fascists like Sarah Huckabee Sanders and Ron DeSantis want to deprive American children of the knowledge of slavery, and African American studies because they say it's "propaganda leftist agenda" designed to teach kids to “hate America.”
That's a preposterous lie.
There are PLENTY of evils and horrors America is responsible for, and if you don't teach kids what happened in the past they may be DOOMED to repeat those horrors in the future.
Today's kids are being asked to treat as normal these "shooter drills" where the possibility of being shot with bullets that make them unrecognizable is a very real possibility, but we think they can't handle learning the truth about what happened 200 years ago?
If you ask me, those of us who learned the truth about America, and STILL love our country, are even more patriotic than those who are trying to whitewash it and hide the truth from kids.
Don't minimize it.
Don't rationalize it, with bullshit like "oh, it wasn't all bad because some people learned skills."
RESPECT THESE KIDS.
TELL THEM THE TRUTH.
Elections have consequences. Don't let Mitch McConnell create his trademark gridlock & hold progress hostage. Vote Jon @ossoff & @ReverendWarnock for Georgia & for America. 🇺🇸
#AmericaNeedsGeorgia
@CalWestray@dish@dish_answers They took KAMC 28 off about that long ago, and now they've taken off CBS 13. Ridiculous. Yet they're charging to "provide" us with Local Channels.
Translation: The recent statement by Chris Krebs was highly accurate, in that there were no improprieties or fraud, confirmed by all credible 2020 Election officials sworn under oath to be truthful. Therefore, he has been terminated for refusing to lie for me, your #LiarInChief.
@WhiteHouse “It affects virtually nobody ..... “ Donald J. Trump, September 21, 2020.
Tell That to the Families of the 204,628 Americans who’ve DIED from COVID-19 🦠💀⚰️💔
@realdonaldtrump is The Leading Cause of Death 💀 to Americans 💔💔💔
An American Tragedy of STAGGERING Proportions