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An incredible moment

To the editor:

Elise Stefanik chose to describe Trump’s photo op in front of St. John’s Episcopal Church in Washington, D.C., as “an incredibly important moment.” She is right. It certainly was an incredible moment. Incredible in his complete disrespect of the Bible and the sanctity of religion. Incredible in his violent disregard of American citizens exercising their First Amendment rights by ordering police to clear the area with rubber bullets and tear gas. Incredible in his total disinterest in the pain and anguish this nation is feeling as a whole, but more importantly, an unmitigated denial of the systemic racism with which this nation continues to grapple.

In an interview with NPR, Bishop Mariann Edgar Budde of the Episcopal Diocese of Washington, D.C., said, “He used violent means to ask to be escorted across the park into the courtyard of the church. He held up his Bible after speaking [an] inflammatory militarized approach to the wounds of our nation. He did not offer a word of balm or condolence to those who are grieving. He did not seek to unify the country, but rather he used our symbols and our sacred space as a way to reinforce a message that is antithetical to everything that the person of Jesus, whom we follow, and the gospel texts that we strive to emulate … represent.”

This degrading and opportunistic behavior by a sitting president is what Congressperson Stefanik defines as “an incredibly important moment.” As Americans across the nation and right here in the North Country protest the violence committed on black and brown bodies, as the pain and anguish of American communities are laid bare, as the bloody sins of our history are exposed in the full light of day, violently clearing a path for a photo opportunity is the best this president can do and it is this moment Stefanik chose to highlight as “incredible” and “important.”

Stefanik has said, “My heart breaks, and America’s heart breaks for George Floyd and his family.” Yet these words ring hollow from a congressional representative who defines the use of brute force on peaceful protestors by the president of the United States an “incredibly important moment.” Her acceptance and approval of this behavior perpetuates the system of oppression and violence toward our fellow black and brown citizens.

Stefanik, for political gain, continues to enable a president who chooses to foment hatred and division rather than work to heal and unify our nation in a moment of great pain. America’s broken heart needs more than empty gestures and the hollow platitudes of sycophants. Stefanik is not fit to serve the people of the North Country.

Teresa Cheetham-Palen

Keene

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