By Lisa Durden
I never really paid the bible-thumping, right-winged, failed Chief Justice Roy Moore any mind until he opened his mouth and out came the most ignorant words in recent American history. In September, 2017, at Moore’s Florence, Alabama rally, this lone black attendee asked him a simple question: when was the last time he thought America was great? And with the utmost of ease, Roy Moore spewed, “I think it was great at the time when families were united — even though we had slavery — they cared for one another…. Our families were strong, our country had a direction,” according to the Los Angeles Times.
I’ve gotta tell ya, reading those hateful words spoken by Roy Moore really made my #BrainBleed! As I read every racist word, I had horrible visions of the Confederate flag dancing like a nasty, Christmas, fruitcake in my head. I processed his vile words as him missing the times in America when “Negros” were in their place. To Moore I say, correction: white American families were strong during slavery on the backs of our ancestors. Slavery was the biggest theft of labor in American history, which they are still profiting from today. So there was nothing caring about the slave master whipping us. There was nothing caring about the slave master hanging us. There was nothing caring about the slave master raping us. Clearly Roy Moore is delusional. He needs to lay on several couches because he’s really showing strong signs of mental illness.
But none of Roy Moore’s bigotry is surprising. Or at least it shouldn’t be. His mouth is reckless and his record on civil rights is frightening. The man had the nerve to call Native Americans and Asians Americans “reds and yellows” as if those are endearing nicknames. He poo-pooed the suggestion by black Alabama lawmakers to erect a monument of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. next to a monument of the Ten Commandments. When the U.S. Supreme Court legalized gay marriage, Moore flippantly likened it to the Supreme Court decision affirming segregation, saying, “I believe [gay marriage] is worse because it affects our entire system of morality and family values.”
I can go on because the list of bigotry is as long as walking a New York mile. However, I’ll stop right here so that I can point out more reasons why hypocrites More and Trump cannot make America great again. So, Roy “Mr. Morality” Moore is against gay marriage and abortion, but he thinks it’s ok to sexually violate teenagers. It’s been alleged that since the age of 30, “Mr. Morality” has been a child sexual predator. Although he denies it, Moore has been accused of molesting teens for years. I don’t know if the accusations are true, but I looked at Moore with a crooked eye when The Washington Post reported that in a thoroughly sourced and corroborated story, he allegedly molested a 14-year-old girl as an assistant district attorney and before yet another woman came forward to allege Moore groped and assaulted her when she was 16.
To make matters worse, when I heard that President Donald Trump, a.k.a. “Number 45,” announced his endorsement of “Misleader” Roy Moore as the Republican nominee for a United States Senate seat, I threw up in my mouth. But why would that be surprising?? After all, Trump is the mirror image of Moore. “Number 45” has also proven himself to be racist, sexist, homophobic and an alleged sex offender. As recent as Monday, December 11th, Brave New Films hosted a Facebook Live press conference where Trump accusers share their stories and call for an investigation into the president’s sexual misconduct. Hmmmm, “where there’s smoke, there’s fire. As my late mother always said, “birds of a feather flock together,” and “Mr. Morality” and “Number 45” are Old World Vultures.
Another unattractive attribute that Donald Trump shares with Roy Moore is his back peddling and hypocrisy. He shamelessly creates a racial divide by attempting to roll back the civil rights issues that are of importance to blacks and people of color, then had the brass balls to turn around and try to check U.S. Representative John Lewis for refusing to attend the opening of the Mississippi Civil Rights Museum that took place last Saturday. The White House issued a statement saying it was “unfortunate” that Lewis and Representative Bennie Thompson of Mississippi “wouldn’t join the president in honoring the incredible sacrifice civil rights leaders made to right the injustices in our history,” adding that, “the movement was about removing barriers and unifying Americans of all backgrounds.” Actually I agree with “Number 45” about needing to remove barriers — and the first barrier that we should remove is him from the White House.
John Lewis tweeted, “President Trump’s attendance and his hurtful policies are an insult to the people portrayed in this civil rights museum. After President Trump departs, we encourage all Mississippians and Americans to visit this historic civil rights museum.” As usual, Trump is really off the rails, so I don’t blame Mr. Lewis for not wanting to align himself with two-faced Donald Trump by being a part of the museum opening and smiling with him for the cameras — that would be “Fake News!”