CHARACTER CONTENT

“I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.”

Rev Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

28 August 1963

Washington, DC

Expect this quote to be widely shared all over today and with little reflection on what else is happening today.

Today is the inauguration of Donald Trump as the 47th President of the United States.

He is someone who started his political career with the nakedly racist attack that Barack Obama was not born in this country. When he descended down the escalator at his eponymous tower in June 2015, he declared that Mexicans were rapists and drug dealers. Trump ran on building a massive wall between the United States and Mexico, never mind the massive logistical, environmental, legal, and international hurdles one would have to clear in order to achieve it.

Every political norm was shattered under Trump. He vowed to lock up and prosecute his political opponents, both real and imaginary, in his presidential campaigns. He regularly insulted veterans, their families, and showed no respect for hallowed sites. Trump denied his successor a peaceful transition when his supporters stormed the US Capitol in a final attempt to keep him in power. Trump is promising them pardons and vows to go after the investigators into the Capitol attack.