The Unity Tour

 

President Trump has certainly had his hands full over the past month or so as he has had to deal with three major hurricanes and a mass shooting.  Two of the three hurricanes made landfall in two of the three most populous states in the country.  Hurricane Harvey brought catastrophic flooding to Texas while Hurricane Irma pounded Florida about two weeks later; causing a massive amount of damage from its storm surge.  Puerto Rico had already gotten hammered by Hurricane Irma; it certainly did not help that Hurricane Maria struck the island as a Category 4 hurricane, causing nearly all of the island’s residents to lose power.

 

The President first visited Texas on August 29; when the mainstream media famously had a hissy-fit about the First Lady’s choice to wear high heels when boarding Air Force One.  He visited the areas affected by Hurricane Harvey again four days later; where he handed out hot dogs at a makeshift shelter set up at the NRG Center in Houston.  President Trump visited Naples, Florida on September 14, where he, along with the First Lady, Vice President Pence, and Governor Rick Scott handed out plates of food and shook hands with residents of a mobile home park badly damaged by Hurricane Irma. 

 

Yesterday, the President and First Lady visited Puerto Rico to survey the damage caused by Hurricane Maria. The Department of Homeland Security had previously waived the Jones Act at the request of Governor Ricardo Rossello.  The Jones Act, formally known as the Merchant Marine Act of 1920, requires goods shipped between points in the United States to be carried on American-built ships with an American crew.  The temporary waiver of the Jones Act will allow ships that do not meet the requirements of the Jones Act to bring in food, water and medicine to the residents of hurricane-ravaged Puerto Rico at a cheaper price.     

 

The President and Mrs. Trump have now travelled to Las Vegas; site of a mass shooting that has claimed 60 lives and left more than 500 wounded.  All hell broke loose late on Sunday night when 64-year-old Stephen Paddock opened fire on a crowd of about 22,000 country music fans attending an outdoor country music festival from his two-room suite on the 32^nd floor of the Mandalay Bay hotel and casino; located about a quarter mile from the festivities.  Many of the concert-goers initially thought the sound came from fireworks; since the shooting happened around the time of the final performance of the weekend, given by Jason Aldean.  The shots first broke out shortly after 10:00 p.m. Pacific Time; long after many on the east coast had gone to bed.  The rampage carried on for about eleven minutes.   Paddock shot himself to death before law enforcement had a chance to apprehend him. Paddock and all other suicidal mass murderers would save people a lot of trouble if they would just turn the gun on themselves rather than killing a bunch of innocent people.   The President called the attack “an act of pure evil” and tried to unify the country, saying “In moments of tragedy and horror, America must come together as one.  And it always has.”  He participated in a moment of silence and ordered American flags on Federal buildings lowered to half staff to honor the victims of the shooting.

 

Unfortunately, not everyone shared the President’s interest in bringing the country together.  CBS had to fire Hayley Geftman-Gold, one of its Vice Presidents, after she said “I’m actually not even sympathetic (to the victims) bc country music fans are often Republican gun toters.” A Twitter user going by the alias “Ann #The Resistance” posted a despicable statement on her page, saying “Lots of white trump supporters in Las Vegas at route 21 watching Jason aldean.  Pray only trumptards died!”  I pray that this woman, supposedly a teacher, loses her job.  I certainly would not want her teaching my children if I had any.      

 

Fortunately, the tasteless views of Hayley Geftman-Gold and “Ann #TheResistance” do not represent the feelings of a majority of Americans.  The tragedy in Las Vegas brought out the best of America; as did the major hurricanes.  People generously sacrificed hours of their time waiting in lines to give blood to those wounded by Sunday’s mass shooting.  In selfless displays of humanity, many people loaded the wounded into their vehicles and drove them to hospitals.  Stories of heroism like these should make everyone “Proud to be an American.”    

 

Not surprisingly, many Democrats as well as their allies in the mainstream media used Sunday night’s mass shooting as another opportunity to push for gun control the same way they used the hurricanes as an opportunity to virtue-signal about climate change.  Senator Chris Murphy (D-CT) suggested that Congressional Republicans and the NRA bear a share of responsibility for what happened because of their refusal to jump on board with gun control that would not necessarily have prevented this tragedy from taking place.  Late night “comedians” also weighed in, another sign that they have chosen to completely abandon their job of “making people laugh” and have instead decided to start making public service announcements on behalf of the Democratic Party.  Contrary to what liberals believe, labeling the NRA a terrorist organization will not result in less mass shootings.  At the first press conference following the shooting, White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders made it clear that The White House has no desire to talk about control so soon after the tragedy. 

 

Many people initially thought that this attack had ties to radical Islamic terrorism because just 24 hours before the shooting in Las Vegas, a radical Islamic terrorist stabbed a police officer and then hit four people with a rental truck in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada.  Fortunately, the horror in Edmonton did not result in any fatalities.  While the terrorist group ISIS has claimed responsibility for the Las Vegas Massacre, the United States government does not appear to take the claim seriously at this point; although they have not completely ruled out a connection to international terrorism.  At this point, the motive of the Las Vegas shooter, who lived in a retirement community in the nearby city of Mesquite, remains unclear.   Law enforcement officials now seek to interview Marilou Danley, the attacker’s girlfriend, who has recently returned to the country from a trip to The Philippines, in the hope of uncovering some information on her boyfriend’s motive.       

 

President Trump has a profound challenge on his hands trying to unite such a divided country.  His travels to areas recently hit hard by natural and man-made disasters show that he does in fact care about all Americans, regardless of whether or not they voted for him.  The mainstream media will never report that; but their influence and credibility continue to decline as the internet has allowed for the ascent of alternative news sources that do not share the MSM’s desire to destroy the Trump Presidency at all costs.  To those whose lives have changed forever as a result of tragedy, a visit from the Commander-in-Chief will provide a moment of sunshine on a very cloudy day.  All those who President Trump has visited on his “unity tour” have a debt of gratitude that he made the worst moments of their lives a little more bearable.