Chicago is a high crime city, full of violence and unrest. This is your regular life in a society that has a reputation of being unsafe. It’s not difficult why people feel down on the times, desperate, and ultimately angry. There’s a lot to be bitter over in Chicago and elsewhere in America. A lot of people are no stranger to hard times.
But last night in Chicago, things seemed to hit a boiling point and exploded. A Donald Trump rally descended into chaos as protests turned violent. It became an ugly situation quickly for everyone.
The problem with the riots though is only partially the riots themselves. The rest of the problem are those across America who celebrated this mess.
We live in a country now where the United States Government spies on its citizens and stores the data it traffics. This occurs as Congress shows no interest in standing up for the Fourth Amendment, making a play to restore the integrity of legal due process, and the President is happy to allow the abuse of power continue. This is a practice that occurs across party lines, with Republicans and Democrats.
People don’t care.
But a controversial businessman who takes a lot of blunt and questionably offensive positions comes to town, and Chicago erupts.
The breaking point of America is not abuses of power or the centralization of power, but people’s feelings getting hurt.
To be clear, the point is not to advocate for violence. Violence in any form is wrong and aggression doesn’t solve problems. These protesters, like the thugs in Ferguson, are making the problems they seek to remedy worse. Riots end in people dead in the streets and a lot of bloodshed.
Why can’t people take this level of interest in the political processes in this country? It is a significant part of the problems we face. All of this passion and energy being used to injure people, encourage further violence, and otherwise trigger absolute unrest is better spent on trying to turn this country around.
But it’s not.
Worse, there are people celebrating this madness out of their hatred for Donald Trump. The brutality of adult human beings who cannot talk, but instead have to incite a riot, is not a cause for celebration. If a situation that results in people being hurt and could even cause deaths is a cause for celebration, this country has lost every shred of morality it might have already had.
Additionally, this isn’t Donald Trump’s fault. Has he called for violence? Has he used heated rhetoric to intentionally get people worked up? Absolutely. But if your intent is to combat the Trump effect and show society why he’s wrong, it’s probably best to not fill his prescription for America.
Anyone celebrating or otherwise supporting what happened in Chicago needs to take a hard look in the mirror. We have a lot of things to be upset with in this country. Aside from the previously noted abuses of power by government, we have rampant war, widespread homelessness, and a country in desperate need of a change of course. It’s a desperate situation for many people.
We need everyone’s energy focused on these many problems and used towards productive results. Productive results do not involve riots or inciting violence. What happened in Chicago is beyond shameful and appalling.