Vandalize my name

When Abraham Lincoln met Sojourner Truth, I read recently, he addressed her as "Auntie."  The Great Emancipator thought he was being respectful, but it makes you cringe.  The most basic kind of respect is to give the other person the dignity of a name.  A real name.  Pullman porters, all of whom were African American, were called "George" as a matter of company policy, because that was Pullman's name and also to save passengers the bother of learning their real names.  Well into the twentieth century, black Southerners were belittled and degraded by being called by their first names by white people who barely knew them, without regard to their ages and professions.

In the interests of Making America Great Again, we seem to be witnessing a return of this low-grade but insidious racism.  Myeshia Johnson has now had the dubious pleasure of two phone calls from Trump, and she maintains that he still has not used her dead husband's name or indicated that he even knows it.  Probably it's on a piece of paper in front of him, so it's more likely he just doesn't care.  Last week John Kelly lied outrageously about Rep. Frederica Wilson without even speaking her name, referring to her as an "empty barrel."  And today, Tweetledumb decided to get ready for his lunch with Senate Republicans by reviving his feud with one of them:  "Bob Corker, who helped President O give us the bad Iran Deal & couldn't get elected dog catcher in Tennessee is now fighting Tax Cuts."

It's a classic.  Words capitalized at random (could his first language be German?), an obvious lie (Corker was twice elected to the Senate by comfortable margins), and the backhand smear of "President O" -- can't even make his tiny thumbs type "Obama"?  Which pharaoh was it who had his hated predecessor's name hacked off every structure he could find?  Now the "lazy," "illegitimate" black president will be disrespected in the same way, if Trumpnose I has anything to do with it.

Don't be too shocked if a future executive order to be decorated with that monkey-scratch signature reverses Harry Truman and re-segregates the armed forces.  "Many people are telling me it will look better to have all white or all black marching with my Tanks and Missiles on 4th of July!"