A Summer of Chaos and Tragedy

As America approached the Memorial Day weekend of 2020, the death toll from COVID-19 in the United States stood at just under 100,000 of our fellow Americans.

But now, three months later, that number soon will have doubled, as our nation’s death toll from the virus approaches an astonishing and tragic 200,000 persons.

On May 25, a Black man, George Floyd, was murdered by a white Minneapolis police officer, who kept his knee on Mr. Floyd’s neck for more than eight minutes while Mr. Floyd lay prone on the ground until Mr. Floyd stopped breathing.

Three months later, a white Kenosha, Wisconsin police officer shot a Black man, Jacob Blake, seven times in the back in front of his three young sons, leaving Mr. Blake paralyzed from the waist down.

Neither Mr. Floyd nor Mr. Blake posed a threat to any of the officers such that the officers were justified in using deadly force.

In May 2020, our national unemployment rate and number of business failures stood at levels not seen since the Great Depression. Three months later, the improvement has been minimal with the spectre of worse to come thanks to the inaction by our leaders in Washington.

The Summer of 2020 has been a tragic disaster in this country by any and every measure. But instead of learning from our mistakes in order to move forward, our national leadership has offered no plan to alleviate the many problems we are facing.

Instead of giving us hope that better days lie ahead, the present administration’s dysfunction has ensured that America will continue to spiral downward.