Trump is a racist. We all knew that, right? It isn't like yesterday's comments about "shithole nations* was the first time anyone had some kind of warning that Donald Trump is a racist. Nonetheless, it still amazes me. Why? Because I still, in my mind, am sticking stubbornly to the idea that people in public office should at least attempt to be statesmanlike, try to not inflame and divide our country but also the world. If stopping being *politically correct* means that a racist can spew filth and division, then I want some more political correctness, which is akin to good manners. I frankly don't like the world that Donald Trump is making, one where drilling offshore to befoul water and air is just fine, unless it's in Florida where his private club Mar-A-Lago is. One where he can daily flout the constitution in order to make money for his own businesses, from which he has not divested, in contravention of the rest of us that try to live ethical lives. Or a world where my ancestors came here as poor Irish Catholic immigrants, only to be trashed by bigots, and now would be called a part of "chain migration" or maybe wouldn't even have been allowed into the country. 

I was reading a good article in the Dallas Observer this morning about the Lee Statue in downtown Dallas being taken down and how life goes on. A few bits from it. 

After days of agonizing delay, the statue finally was being lifted off its pedestal, and at that moment, I spied a young woman in the crowd of onlookers who had been a kid on our block 20 years ago. She is African-American, from an old, prominent Dallas family.

She told me that she only came to watch because she lived across the street from Lee Park. She came with no expectations or even much interest. It was all going on noisily right across the street from her building, so she came downstairs to look.

But when the statue lifted off the pedestal, she said, her heart began to race. She told me she had never in her wildest dreams expected Dallas to make a statement like the removal of the Lee statue. It meant that her Dallas, the place where she grew up, where her family members had been pioneers and professionals under the onus of race, was making itself over into a new kind of place. That was the spirit of that moment — a spirit of hope and power. That was the takeaway.

I can't wait for the next election, when I have an opportunity to vote for someone, whoever that may be, that has a vision of a united America, in which all are considered valued and important, and more, I want someone who will want to expand upon American values. Trump is not the one.