By now everyone knows what happened yesterday. Actor and filmmaker Rob Reiner, and his wife Michele, were found stabbed to death in their mansion in California. It seems that it was none other than Reiner's son who was the murderer.
It was a horrific thing by any measure. And today President Donald Trump, who had long been a target of Reiner's ire, released a statement about the deaths of the couple. I won't post it all here, Lord knows it's all over the place tonight. But to put it short: Trump blamed Reiner's "Trump Derangement Syndrome" for causing his murder.
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| Rob Reiner and Donald Trump (photo credit: MSNBC) |
The more I think about what President Trump said about Rob Reiner, the more it disgusts me. I understand that Reiner hated Trump's guts but that's no excuse whatsoever for what the sitting President of the United States said. Trump should have taken the high ground. I'm thinking of what happened when Prince passed away. "Weird Al" Yankovic paid him a very beautiful tribute, even though Prince had long dissed Weird Al at every turn. Some things are much bigger than what are really very petty disagreements in the grander scheme of things. Trump had a great opportunity to be a good man, the better man even, in this. And he pissed it away with his childish immature statement.
Now, in large part I've been a supporter of Trump. He is doing things that have been needed accomplishing for a very long time, like addressing the issue of America's porous border. Nobody will ever spot me wearing a red "Make America Great Again" hat, I usually don't go for fads like that. But I've liked him.
But this, what Trump posted earlier today? Not cool. Not cool at all. It was crass, classless, and completely without redeeming value.
I didn't care for Reiner's politics either. But he was a fellow human being, and what happened to him and his wife is an absolute tragedy. I am willing to look past his beliefs and his weaknesses and appreciate the gifts he shared with the world.
Tonight I am going to watch Misery, probably my favorite Rob Reiner movie, in his memory. I'll honor him if the President won't.
2 comments:
Proverbs 24:17 tells us to "do not rejoice when your enemy falls." You're right Trump had the chance to show he is a true Christian and he blew it. He needs to come out and say that he was wrong to say what he did. It's the only way he's going to get respect back after this.
Somehow I don't think Donald Trump is going to come out and say he's wrong about anything.
He's really infuriating me now. No one will ever find me wearing a red "Make America Great Again" cap but generally I like Trump. He's doing a *lot* that has needed doing for a very long time now, like addressing the porous borders, sending illegal aliens back to their countries of origin, slashing outrageous spending. And then he does this, attacking Rob Reiner after the man has been viciously murdered. I know fully well what it's like to be kicked when you're down. In my case it also happened publicly. But I dealt with it. And then a few months ago the man who had been dragging my name through the mud died by suicide. I took no pleasure, no sense of victory from it. I actually felt very sorry for him, sorry for his family. "Only by the grace of God..." and all that. It can be hard but it can be endured. It MUST be endured, if we are to be living witnesses of Christ. I haven't done that perfectly and I can't boast of it at all. But it remains nonetheless the ideal. And Donald Trump should know better. As simply a decent human being if not a maturing Christian.
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