Last night a man with automatic weapons unloaded clip after clip after clip on concert goers in Las Vegas, from the 32nd floor of the Mandalay Bay hotel, killing 58 and wounding more than 400. Every American waited to hear if the man was a Muslim or at least black. When the shooter turned out to be a 64-year-old white retiree from just outside Vegas, using military weapons of war, some of us were relieved. Relieved that gasoline wasn’t poured on our already uncontained racial fires. Others pounded out the fake news: “False flag, a Muslim convert, member of ISIS.” The truth is unbearable. There have been 328 mass shootings in 2017, mostly by angry white guys and today is only the 275th day of the year.

Weapons of war are in the hands of ordinary citizens and the police. The NRA argued that more guns would equal fewer shootings. They were wrong. They said the only thing that stops a bad man with a gun is a good man with a gun. They were wrong. More guns equal more shootings. More powerful guns equal more mass killings.

Before all of this carnage in Vegas, the Mayor of San Juan pled for help on live television, only to be told by the President of the United States, who was speaking at a golf tournament, that she is lazy, nasty and ineffective. The President seems to be giving his cult members more license to rage. His followers already carry torches in the street, defend the Confederacy and shout “Jews will not replace us.” A mayor who begs for help after a direct hit by a Category 5 hurricane, pisses off the President’s fragile ego and is called lazy, nasty, ineffective. The President then presents her with a Golf Trophy. An empty cup.

Brown Americans can drink from an empty cup. Is there a double standard? Is it racial? Remember what your first thought was this morning when you heard about Las Vegas. Maybe we should all take a knee and beg for help.

President Dotard has made sports his new battlefield. He will lose.

Donald “chickenhawk” Trump and his Trumpanzees apparently don’t understand patriotism. Patriotism isn’t a flag or a song. It’s fighting for a country on foreign soil even when here at home, in your own state or county, you wouldn’t be permitted to sit at a lunch counter. It’s putting your body on the line even when you were not permitted to vote. It’s righting your country when it’s wrong. Not accepting that is to remain ignorant about why America exists.

America is the Land of the Free and Home of the Brave. Being young and black in America requires bravery every day. The questions to ask are why in 21st Century America is that a requirement, and why doesn’t our President get it?

African Americans and decent people of all races, religions, and creeds know this. African Americans have fought in every American war going back to the Revolutionary War. What Trumpanzees don’t seem to understand is that the most disrespectful thing you could do is to fly a Confederate Flag, the flag of succession, next to the Stars and Stripes. The two cannot stand together. One represents attacking the United States and dismantling it from the inside, and the other stands for a more perfect union. When will Trump learn that?