Deplorables

 I saw two truly shocking, truly sickening news clips last night of two separate, unrelated attacks on two elderly Asian men by young white men. The poor old guys were just going about their business, walking peacefully on the sidewalk as anyone ought to be able to do, when the young men ran up and violently shoved them to the ground. One of the elderly men (90 years old, if I recall) died a couple days later of a resulting head injury. 

Of course, why and how this happened is no mystery. We know that attacks on Asian Americans have risen sharply since the beginning of the COVID pandemic, and we know that Trump and his enablers encouraged these assaults by pointing the finger at the Chinese in particular, by making a point of calling it the "Chinese flu" or "Kung Flu". It's that good old freedom of speech again, the favorite shield of careless cowards. 

For me, an old man living in Asia among Asians, it is impossible to imagine being suddenly assaulted simply for being an American or for being white or for whatever. I have never in ten years been the target of any sort of racial hatred or insult here. If anything, I have been treated more kindly than I deserve just because I am a foreigner. What the hell is wrong with Americans!?

I do hope that these young men, who are after all on video tape, are quickly identified and imprisoned, for they do not deserve to walk among the other human beings on this planet. We do not need them. Not at all.