This is the email that I sent to Senator Marco Rubio on June 6, 2020. Have you no sense of decency, Sen. Rubio? Manuel Castro Rodríguez
“When there are many men without decorum, there are always others who themselves possess the decorum of many men. These are the ones who rebel with terrible strength against those who rob nations of their liberty, which is to rob men of their decorum.”
José Martí.
Sen. Marco Rubio, You know that when the Parkland massacre
occurred, I wrote about your behavior. I think that
I should block you, for my mental hygiene. But for
the sake of American society’ interests, after
careful consideration due to the current
situation and my humanitarian principles, I will do
it again.
This week, demonstrators across the country
gathered, in the midst of a pandemic, to protest
the killing of George Floyd and police violence against black Americans.
This week, federal police used tear gas on peaceful protesters in order to clear an area for President Donald Trump’s photo op.
This week, many Americans were jolted into conversations about racism and policing — though for many black families, this week feels like history repeating itself.
This week, you showed that you are a man
entirely without moral scruples of any kind,
again. For example, an entirely peaceful protest
was gathering outside the White House on
Monday night when it was broken up with a volley
of tear gas, rubber bullet and some of the most
aggressive policing seen in D. C., but you told
(emphasis mine),
Many in the media fell for the
calculated & deliberate tactics
of professional agitators.
They knew the street needed to be cleared before 7pm curfew.
But they deliberately stayed to trigger police action & get the story they wanted, that “police attacked peaceful protestors.”
I did not know you were so uninformed, Sen. Rubio! Police used tear gas — it can increase the spread of the coronavirus and might make some people more vulnerable to catching it — to clear protesters away from Lafayette Park Monday so Trump could visit the historic church near the White House.
D.C. christians lash out against Trump’s church visits, saying ‘God Is not a photo opportunity’.
The Rev. Gini Gerbasi, the church’s rector, wrote in a Facebook post that she and a group of clergy and laypeople were forcibly cleared out from the church’s patio ahead of the visit.
“The patio of St. John’s, Lafayette square had been HOLY GROUND today,” she wrote. "A place of respite and laughter and water and granola bars and fruit snacks. But that man turned it into a BATTLE GROUND first, and a cheap political stunt second.”
A former St. John’s rector on the scene revealed in a Facebook post that she was left “coughing” from the tear gas.
Soon after, a citywide curfew went into effect, helicopters flew close to the ground to disperse protesters, and police gave chase to those who remained outside.
Top leaders from D.C.’s Episcopal and Catholic dioceses denounced the president’s appearances at religious sites. Appearing on WAMU'sKojo Nnamdi Show, Mariann Budde, the Episcopal Bishop of Washington, said Trump “misused” St. John’s “for a political gesture.”
Archbishop Wilton Gregory of the Catholic
Diocese of Washington called Trump’s visit to the
shrine “reprehensible.” Like Budde, he said the
Catholic site was “misused and manipulated in a
fashion that violates our religious principles,
which call us to defend the rights of all people.”
Rector Gini Gerbasi, who previously worked at St. John’s on Lafayette Square and now works at the St. John’s in nearby Georgetown, said she was helping the Black Lives Matter organizers, fellow clergy and others hand out water during the peaceful protest when the tear gas and rubber bullets were fired. “That man turned it into a BATTLE GROUND first, and a cheap political stunt second,” she said of Trump. “We were literally DRIVEN OFF of the St. John’s, Lafayette Square patio with tear gas and concussion grenades and police in full riot gear,” Gerbasi said. “We were pushed back 20 feet.” She said she was OK but “shaken” by the ordeal.
James Stocker, a professor of political science and international affairs at Trinity Washington University, could think of no historical precedent for Trump’s visit to St. John’s in the middle of a protest. “Churches are often seen as sanctuaries, as holy places that should not be disturbed,” he said. “There would not be this kind of outrage in the Catholic community in Washington D.C. if not for Trump’s appearance yesterday.”
Rev. Raphael Warnock, senior pastor at Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, said President Donald Trump’s Monday photo op at the house of worship known as the Church of the Presidents was “deeply offensive.”
Bishop Mariann Edgar Budde of the Episcopal Diocese of Washington criticized the manner of President Trump’s visit to St. John’s Episcopal Church amid protests over the death of George Floyd.
Mayor Muriel Bowser, who had declared the city’s curfew, tweeted (emphasis mine),
I imposed a curfew at 7pm. A full 25 minutes before the curfew & w/o provocation, federal police used munitions on peaceful protestors in front of the White House, an act that will make the job of @DCPoliceDept officers more difficult. Shameful!
DC residents — Go home. Be safe.
How is it possible for you to be so well educated
and appear to be so very intelligent, yet you are
so “uninformed”?
To top it all, “Interesting & timely uncover expose
on #Antifa, a violent movement some continue to
deny exists,” video
claiming to “expose” the inner workings of antifa,
a non-existent organization that the Trump
Administration wants to deem “domestic
terrorists.” Where is the evidence to prove it?
Where is the evidence that it is true? Why am I
telling you this? Because is what the rule of law
contemplates.
“Our nation is founded on the principle that the
observance of the law is the eternal safeguard of
liberty, and defiance of the law is the surest road
to tyranny,” John Kennedy tells us.
Trump’ broken English is very difficult to
understand. You do not talk in a broken way like
he, but you tell the same lies like Trump. The
video was created by James O’Keefe’s
widely discredited right wing attack group
Project Veritas, which has a long history of
incredibly fake stories. For instance, Project
Veritas: how fake news prize went to rightwing
group beloved by Trump.