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April 21, 2020
Brian Gagan
San Francisco
Discrimination is such a sensitive subject. For some, turning away is our practiced response, but for those directly involved as victims it means turning the other cheek. Being a straight male Caucasian, I am usually not in one of the groups that gets targeted for opprobrium.
Our president has taken to calling the coronavirus the Chinese virus even after his advisers supposedly admonished him not to do so; I do not want to remain silent as this intentional verbal assault by Trump is recklessly aimed at a target group, Asians in this case.
The only appropriate response to this insensitive broadside came from counsel Joseph Welch to the despised Sen. Joe McCarthy over 60 years ago in a dramatic Senate confrontation, and I quote, “At long last, have you left no sense of decency?”
If we are inclined to dismiss this as just another annoying Trump embarrassment, think again. For some, this is a stab in the heart and there is more at stake here than hurt feelings. Something is wrong if our sense of compassion is not being triggered, and we are not outraged.
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