On Monday night, the President of the United States plowed away peaceful protestors using tear gas, rubber bullets and officers on horses in order to walk to the St. John’s Episcopal Church and get a photo of himself holding a Bible. The narcissist-in-chief outdid himself this time. Every patriotic American who cares about this country should be very alarmed by this flailing tinpot dictator.

Where do I begin? Let’s start with the words of the Right Rev. Mariann Budde, the Episcopal bishop of Washington. “I am the bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Washington and was not given even a courtesy call, that they would be clearing the area with tear gas so they could use one of our churches as a prop. This was done in a time of deep hurt and pain in our country, and his actions did nothing to help us or heal us.”

Time and time again, Trump has demonstrated his inability to help or heal anyone. As the death toll from the coronavirus climbed, he showed not one whit of empathy. When protestors stormed the state capitol in Michigan carrying automatic weapons and threatening the governor, he conveyed not one ounce of concern. His outrage is selective.

As Jennifer Rubin of the Washington Post noted, “The President who called NFL protestors peacefully taking a knee ‘sons of bitches,’ lied when he declared that he is a friend of peaceful protestors…Nothing could be more representative of the dangerous narcissism of a president in over his head, resorting to threats of violence against a country he ostensibly is supposed to lead.”

The horrific killing of George Floyd by a Minnesota policeman shook the nation to its very foundations, not just African-Americans who rightly cried “Enough!” but every decent human being who cares about justice and believes in the principles of democracy.

Protests have erupted in big cities and small towns around the country and right in our own backyard in the past week. On Sunday, several hundred people gathered in Brunswick on the Mall to read the names of people killed by the KKK and other organizations and more recently by police. On

Monday night, dozens of protestors gathered outside the courthouse in Bath to chant “Hands Up! Don’t Shoot” and “Justice for George!”

As a white man, I’ve never had to worry about being pulled over by a policeman while driving because of the color of my skin. I didn’t have to have a talk with my two sons about always being on guard while out in public. I haven’t had to cry out “Listen to me! See me! I am here!” so that people would acknowledge my presence.

Donald Trump won the 2016 election — thanks to the electoral vote, not the popular vote — in large part by playing to racist fears, although people who voted for him will deny it. He recently had the audacity to claim that “MAGA loves blacks” while running a campaign and presidency that conveys the exact opposite message. Incidentally, he also made political hay by pretending to be a Christian, a preposterous claim on all counts; maybe he thought that holding a Bible (upside down) in front of a Church would please his “Christian” base.

Trump is — let’s acknowledge what is staring us plainly in the face — a wannabe dictator. Right before he called the nation’s governors on Monday and reamed them out for being “weak” he had called Russian President Vladimir Putin, a thug he admires for being “strong.”

Columnist George Will, a former Republican, had it right when he wrote, “The person voters hired to take care that the laws be faithfully executed’ stood on July 28, 2017, in front of uniformed police and urged them, ‘please don’t be too nice’ when handling suspected offenders. His hope was fulfilled for 8 minutes and 48 seconds on Minneapolis pavement.”

I fear what will happen in the next few days and weeks as legitimately angry Americans of all colors and creeds try to make their collective voices heard by a President incapable of listening and by Republican Senators afraid of standing up to their mob boss. I hope that enough Americans wake up to what’s happening. It is time to make America America again, and we must start by voting Donald Trump out of office in November.

David Treadwell, a Brunswick writer, welcomes commentary and suggestions for future “Just a Little Old” columns. dtreadw575@aol.com.

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