Teach Your Children Well

You wear that MAGA hat and you own everything that goes with it: racism, misogyny, , endless lying, the whole slimy litany of everything that Donald Trump stands for.

The summer right before Trump was nominated, I was walking on the Wildwood Boardwalk when a bunch of young punks on bikes almost crashed into me and one yelled, “Hey, man, vote for Trump!” 

“Kiss my fucking ass!” was the only thing I could come up with.

I think that punk  must have pedaled all the way down to Kentucky and enrolled in Covington Catholic High School, judging from what I saw on television.

The star of the viral video is Covington Catholic student Nick Sandmann, in his MAGA hat, who stands within inches of the face of native American Vietnam vet Nathan Phillips and brazenly smirks while his fellow students chant and jeer. One is so carried away that he rips his shirts off and throws them it into the crowd of his howling peers. 

Sandmann has since written a long and winding explanation that he was actually trying to act as a peacemaker to forestall the violence he saw in the making and that the smirk was actually a smile to show Phillips that he was a friend.

Those kids were given the day off and a bus to go to DC for an annual anti-abortion rally that the all-male school always sends students to. These young scholars, though, were decked out in a variety of MAGA gear – the ubiquitous red hats, as well as knit hats, tee shirts, and sweatshirts.

These kids didn't sneak all that MAGA gear out of the house that morning nor did they try to hide it from school administration and the so-called “chaperone” who went with them as was seen leading their cheers and jeers.

These are the children of adults who have no problems with them wearing MAGA stuff and are students in an all-male Catholic school that sends them to the nation's capitol rigged up like they're going to a Trump rally – a school that celebrated Trump's election and whose students routinely use racial slurs against sports opponents of color.

Covington Catholic is shut down now because of security concerns and its initial promise to get to the bottom of things rings hollow in the face of the circling of the wagons by Covington Catholic parents and alumni to defend the good name of the school and its students.

My first reaction to the Sandmann video was, “Here is the face of entitled ignorance and arrogance. This little bastard is just showing off for his creep racist friends.” 

That's what I thought then and still think. The fact that Trump has tweeted support for this poor misunderstood boy as another victim of fake news reinforces my belief. I think Trump likes this kid because he is already an accomplished liar and racist and proudly wears the red hat.

You wear that red hat and you own everything that goes with it, Nick Sandmann.