Why I can't watch

I find it hard--too hard--to watch the George Floyd trial, so I don't. I turn it off. I have no doubt that Derek Chauvin killed Mr. Floyd, although I'm far less sure that he meant to. All that time--nine minutes and 29 seconds--and all that talk--the crowd insisting on Floyd's distress--make Chauvin's guilt all-too-evident.

The civil case has already made clear where this trial is headed. When a jury awarded Floyd's family more than 20 million dollars, that jury established Chauvin's guilt. 

As one African-American commentator said last night on MSNBC, he won't be surprised if Chauvin is freed: white cops are always exonerated in the deaths of black people.

I get that. Sadly, his generalization is right on the money: white cops do walk away from dead black bodies. But this particular white man thinks that the white cop--Derek Chauvin--killed a black man named George Floyd, and just as what he did was judged as a crime in the civil court, it will be in this nationally televised criminal court as well.

I just wish it was over. "Why can't we all just get along?" to quote another black man victimized by white cops. Racism has existed since 1619 in this country; Trump didn't create the immense fracture that now separates us, but neither did he do anything to heal it. In the process, he only opened it even farther. 

I am greatly thankful that split is not solely a racial divide. What happened last summer in American cities wasn't just a Black protest. Millions of white Americans took to the streets as well. What we're suffering through is a racial divide that is no longer specifically a racial divide because millions of white people have seen what Derek Chauvin did, what black people have suffered at the hands of white cops, and the plain fact that blue lives matter only when they practice justice, only when Black lives matter. Derek Chauvin is looking at serious jail time.

And then there's this. According to the Brennan Center for Justice, by February of this year, "state lawmakers have carried over, prefiled, or introduced 253 bills with provisions that restrict voting access in 43 states, and 704 bills with provisions that expand voting access in a different set of 43 states." That was six weeks ago. How many since?

Why? Because confusion gone rampant in the 2020 Presidential Election, because some people are convinced--and were for months already before the election--that President Trump's loss meant the election was rigged. Trump preached that doctrine like a tub-thumper, started it before 2016 even. He created the mob that took over the Capital. He nurtured the crooked truth that he couldn't lose. He set his base up for what happened, and when it did--when he lost--millions saw fraud.

What libs like me call "voter suppression" is layered atop the animosity created by Derek Chauvin, Black Lives Matter, and racial discrimination that just won't quit, especially when we are, as a nation, amid dynamic demographic change. "Voter suppression" is yet another issue that's an open wound. Once again, ex-President Donald Trump, who is certainly not responsible for American racism, continues to do what he can to throw gas all over the flames.

Think of this: he could, this morning, call a news conference, gather air time all over the media, and speak to the entire nation. He could have the bully pulpit once again, even though he lost it in the election. He could dominate the news today, tomorrow, and well into next month, if he'd simply stand up and accept the truth that he lost.

Sixty-some courts of law made it clear he did. One of his most active defense lawyers now claims in her own defense that no thoughtful person could have believed the preposterous things she said about voter fraud. Voting machine companies, vilified by Rudy and others and Trump himself, are taking his soothsayers--including Fox News--to court for willful deception.

The ex-President could do more for racial justice and reconciliation in America this very morning, right now, by standing before the American people and just admitting that he lost the Presidential race to Joe Biden. He'd pre-empt the trial.

Don't hold your breath. He won't because he can't. He truly believes he won "in a landslide."

And that's why I can't watch the Twin Cities' trial of Derek Chauvin, who is charged for the death of George Floyd, because it's hard not to feel that the divisions so painful in this country are growing ever wider and will continue to, no matter what the outcome.

Donald Trump could do something. Yet this morning, ex-President Trump could help us all take a giant step toward healing this nation. He could.

He won't, and his base, including millions of prayerful evangelicals, will continue to follow his deceit.

I just can't watch.