By Susan Palmes-Dennis
ROCKINGHAM, North Carolina—It’s been more than a week ago when my eyes welled up in tears as I watched on Fox News the assassination attempt against the 45th president Donald J. Trump during a campaign rally.
Like many others who watched the incident on TV at 6:11 pm last July 13, I was glued every minute looking at Trump ducking while several Secret Service agents shielded him from harm.
I also saw my husband Ronnie tear up though he was mostly quiet while I voiced my dismay out loud. The journalist in me switched through several channels like CNN which showed footages of the dastardly attack.
It was troubling to see the footage live and if the assailant somehow succeeded, I could have been a witness to a live execution of a presidential candidate, let alone a former president. Isn’t that scary?
To those who watched the movie ‘London Has Fallen’, the president played by Edward Eckhart survived his captors courtesy of his Secret Service agent played by Gerard Butler.
********************
About 10 days after it happened the public only gets sketchy details at best of the assailant who managed to bypass Secret Service detail to fire shots at Trump who survived mostly because the assailant, said to be a young man in his 20s, was a lousy shooter.
There were security lapses and questionable policies instituted by the Secret Service chief whom critics complained had prioritized DEI (diversity, equality, inclusiveness) in the recruitment of Secret Service detail on the president rather than actual competence.
Elsewhere specifically in the Philippines, I get upset on reading social media posts from friends who claim that the attack was staged. If they actually saw the incident as it happened live, they wouldn’t be making that dangerously foolish assumption.
The US Federal Bureay of Investigation (FBI) confirmed that it was an assassination attempt on Trump. Scanning through footage, Trump can be heard saying near a microphone ‘ let me find my shoes’ before he made that defiant fist bump.
Some nitpickers would question why Trump had to look for his shoes and simply put, he wants to look dignified by not appearing barefoot. Again, the shot grazed the side of his head specifically hitting a portion of his right ear.
****************
About 10 days had passed and still, we haven’t see one motive behind the attack. It’s not comforting to know that Trump survived because of the shooter’s incompetence. I’d rather not engage in speculations lest paranoia gets the better of me.
When I came to the US 15 years ago, I was more inclined to be affiliated with the Democrat party as their principles of looking out for the poor and the less privileged appealed to my idealistic views. It reminded me of the late Philippine president Ramon Magsaysay who said those who have less in life should have more in law.
But when I lived in the US I saw for myself how a lot of Americans struggled to make ends meet. Regardless of their skin color, they worked hard but their efforts are increasingly futile in a country where the socio-economic gap between rich and poor are growing wider no thanks to Democrat policies on law enforcement and immigration.
Speaking of immigration, the Democrats had long been crucified in public for their tolerance and inaction on illegal immigrants of whom some have grossly benefitted from social services packages delivered by the incumbent US federal government.
That’s why it peeves me no end to read the ridiculously uninformed opinions of friends online who think they know what’s happening in the US right now when they haven’t lived in the country lately. It’s time for them to be more aware and look beyond their traditional media fare to study all aspects of the issues at hand.
