Probably the most personally moving and powerfully shaming speech of either convention was delivered on Thursday night, not long before Hillary Clinton gave her acceptance speech.
The speaker was Muslim-American Khizr Khan, a Harvard educated lawyer who has lived in the United States for 36 years. He spoke of his son's sacrifice of his own life in the service of his country and to save the lives of the troops he commanded as a Captain in the United States Army. Standing with Mr. Khan at the podium, but not speaking herself, was his wife Ghazala, the mother of Capt. Humayun Khan who was killed in Iraq.
Mr. Khan rebuked Donald Trump, saying his policies would have kept them from entering this country, from becoming patriotic Americans whose son made the ultimate sacrifice for his country. And he pointedly challenged Donald Trump, saying: "You have sacrificed nothing, no one."
You know the old saying: "When you find yourself in a hole, stop digging." Donald Trump seems incapable of doing that. But wouldn't you think a little empathy for the grief of these parents would be the least any chastised politician could have managed -- or, at the least, just keep silent?
Instead Trump's despicable retort was to question why Ghazala Khan did not speak. Was it perhaps because she is not allowed to speak in public by her religion? “I’d like to hear his wife say something. . . . If you look at his wife, she was standing there. She had nothing to say. She probably, maybe she wasn’t allowed to have anything to say. You tell me.”
It's the tone of disrespect, trying to find something to criticize, even in this most poignant moment of grief that brought the crowd to its feet in respect and empathy. Donald Trump is incapable of understanding that.
In fact, Ghazala Khan had spoken at length in several interviews on Friday, explaining that she is still so overcome by her grief that she has trouble maintaining her composure, especially when she sees her son's picture (which had been shown on a big screen as they came onto the stage at the convention). She later went on to describe to Lawrence O'Donnell on MSNBC the last phone conversation she had with her son on Mother's Day, when she told him:
The speaker was Muslim-American Khizr Khan, a Harvard educated lawyer who has lived in the United States for 36 years. He spoke of his son's sacrifice of his own life in the service of his country and to save the lives of the troops he commanded as a Captain in the United States Army. Standing with Mr. Khan at the podium, but not speaking herself, was his wife Ghazala, the mother of Capt. Humayun Khan who was killed in Iraq.
Mr. Khan rebuked Donald Trump, saying his policies would have kept them from entering this country, from becoming patriotic Americans whose son made the ultimate sacrifice for his country. And he pointedly challenged Donald Trump, saying: "You have sacrificed nothing, no one."
You know the old saying: "When you find yourself in a hole, stop digging." Donald Trump seems incapable of doing that. But wouldn't you think a little empathy for the grief of these parents would be the least any chastised politician could have managed -- or, at the least, just keep silent?
Instead Trump's despicable retort was to question why Ghazala Khan did not speak. Was it perhaps because she is not allowed to speak in public by her religion? “I’d like to hear his wife say something. . . . If you look at his wife, she was standing there. She had nothing to say. She probably, maybe she wasn’t allowed to have anything to say. You tell me.”
It's the tone of disrespect, trying to find something to criticize, even in this most poignant moment of grief that brought the crowd to its feet in respect and empathy. Donald Trump is incapable of understanding that.
In fact, Ghazala Khan had spoken at length in several interviews on Friday, explaining that she is still so overcome by her grief that she has trouble maintaining her composure, especially when she sees her son's picture (which had been shown on a big screen as they came onto the stage at the convention). She later went on to describe to Lawrence O'Donnell on MSNBC the last phone conversation she had with her son on Mother's Day, when she told him:
‘Be safe, and don’t become a hero for me, just be my son, come back as a son. . . . He came back as a hero. . . .
“Sacrifice, I don’t think he [Trump] knows the meaning of sacrifice. . . Because when I was standing there, all America felt my pain. Without saying a single word. Everybody felt that pain. . . .
"I don’t know what type of Islam he has read or heard. . . . I’m so sorry about that, that he has not had any idea what the Islam is.”Trump tried to walk it back a bit by tweeting that Capt. Khan is a hero, but then he veered off into focusing on the "radical Islamists" who killed Capt. Khan. Of course they did. But that is not the point at this moment of grief that is finally allowing most Americans to fully appreciate that Muslims are part of our fabric, that they care for our country and our democracy, and that they sacrifice for it too.
Mr. Khan called Trump's belated comments "faked empathy."
"What he said originally — that defines him . . . [and] proves that this person is void of empathy. He is unfit for the stewardship of this great country. You think he will empathize . . . with the suffering of this country’s poor people? He showed his true colors when he disrespected this country’s most honorable mother. . . .He then referred to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and House Speaker Paul Ryan, calling them decent, honorable men; but he called on them to repudiate Trump's divisive rhetoric -- even saying that Trump's candidacy has become a moral issue beyond policy or political disagreement.
"The snake oil he is selling, and my patriotic, decent Americans are falling for that. Republicans are falling for that. And I can only appeal to them. Reconsider. Repudiate. It’s a moral obligation. A person void of empathy for the people he wishes to lead cannot be trusted with that leadership. To vote is a trust. And it cannot be placed in the wrong hands."
These Muslim-Americans, Khizr and Ghazala Khan, and their son Humayun Khan, have the moral fiber and true patriotism -- and the human decency -- that Donald Trump lacks. As Khizr Khan emphasizes: "This is my country, too. . . . [Trump] doesn't realize that there are patriotic Muslim-Americans in this country willing to lay [down] their lives for this country. We are a testament to that."
Ralph
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