Yes, He Would. George Floyd Would Be Happy.

George Floyd would be happy today. So 45's right. I have to give him that.

The reason has nothing to do with the economy, which is 45's twisted, conjured analysis. Look at what's happened.

His horrible death at the hands of police officers, uncalled for and litigious, has sparked sixteen days of mostly peaceful protests so far. There will be more. The violence has just about completely subsided, too. Hundreds of cities have been affected, far more than anything that happened in the '60s, as much as anything that happened during the Vietnam War.

The death of one man did this. He would be amazed, I would guess. And happy that his life meant something. No, he's not exactly a hero. He was picked up for passing a counterfeit $20 bill, a local and federal crime. Whether he was actually guilty is, of course, something we'll never know, now that he's dead at the hands of the people who were merely charged with getting him into custody.

Nevertheless, he is dead at the hands of police. He couldn't possibly have posed a threat to the four of them. There is no reasonable excuse for it. What couldn't have been shown until this kind of thing, which was clearly coming if not here then elsewhere, is how tired people have gotten of it all--the overkill, the foolish overemphasis on force, the misreading of what order really is.

45's reaction, to call out the military, has been derided and condemned and demonstrated to be a horrible example of overreach. The White House now looks like an armed camp, a prime example of the cowardice by which this president operates. It reveals his inadequacy. His photo-op at the nearby Episcopal church has been derided as incredibly phony and pandering.

It has been far and away overriden by the demonstrators. As a commentator said on Fareed Zakaria's CNN show this morning, "GPS," America has displayed itself as a cultural power, if no longer a political one. Floyd's death has sparked protests in cities around the globe, including Australia and Capetown, South Africa. It's an awesome display of compassion and empathy.

In an act far delayed, the Marines have banned displays of Confederate flags at their bases. Virginia's governor has ordered a Confederate statue to be torn down. And the NFL commissioner, Roger Goodell, has admitted that its condemnation of 'taking a knee' to protest police brutality at the start of games was a mistake (though nothing said about its main displayer, Colin Kaepernick, who deserves a real chance to get onto an NFL roster--except this admission may be, perhaps, an implied release of the shackles behind that).

Protestors have painted two blocks of 16th Street in Washington, DC, with the message BLACK LIVES MATTER. We'll see how long that's allowed to stay before 45, in a loss of temper, has it painted over. But it's there right now, this very day.

Small, very white towns in Wisconsin have turned out in displays of solidarity: McFarland, near Madison; Hayward, up north quite some way; and Shawano, about an hour west of Green Bay, as well as nearby Milwaukee suburbs like Wauwatosa, Shorewood and Whitefish Bay. Someone wrote a commentary in the Washington Post, printed Friday, about their small town in Colorado, near Telluride--which is pretty rural--which also had a march. A recent map shown by the New York Times shows clearly that this was not a bailiwick of the large cities alone. 

The best thing that I have seen, though, is that younger people have taken the lead. The baby boomers, the Vietnam protest generation, have claimed ownership of liberalism and protest movements. But we, too, are getting old and tired. The younger adults are picking up the slack.

We left them with something, then. Hooray. And they are not backing off. Sixteen days now. That's amazing.

George Floyd, rest his soul, would have been pleased. He will live on. Bet he never expected to.

Be well. Be careful. With some luck, I'll see you down the road.


Mister Mark