Livin' On Tulsa Time

When Donald Trump announced his return to rallies, it was like hearing about the 1996 reunion of the original Kiss lineup.  I hadn't been a fan of their earlier shows, and I wasn't looking forward to the new tour!  Also, I was afraid that Trump's rallies would steal the momentum Joe Biden - still treading lightly in making public appearances in the shadow of COVID-19 - was beginning to build up.

I needn't have worried.  Trump's pending return to the rally circuit is already a public relations disaster before he's even set foot on the stage.

Last week, Trump announced a rally on June 19 in Tulsa, Oklahoma.  The choices of date and place were doubly embarrassing.  See, June 19 is celebrated by black Americans as "Juneteenth," the day in 1865 that the last remaining slaves in the old Confederacy were freed when Union General Gordon Granger arrived at Galveston, Texas to militarily take over the state to reconstruct the defeated rebels and get the state re-admitted to the Union.  Freeing the slaves was the first order of business.  (Slavery was officially abolished by the Thirteenth Amendment, ratified less than six months later.)  Most white people don't know about this bit of history, probably because it involves Texas, a state that saw little action in the Civil War.  I learned about Juneteenth back in 1992.  And Trump, apparently, learned about it just now.

And then there's Tulsa.  While it's known for being the hometown of cultural icons such as Tony Randall and Leon Russell, it's also known for a vicious race riot in May 1921 instigated by whites against an economically successful black neighborhood.  I learned about this more recently in a television documentary, but again, Trump found out at about five o'clock on Friday.

Although Trump is still having the rally in Tulsa - what, there wasn't an available venue in Lawton? -  he postponed it by a day, saying he didn't want to offend black voters by holding it on June 19, but no one believes that.  More likely, his aides told him that June 20 would better for a rally because it's a Saturday.

But wait! There's more!  The Trump campaign has put out a policy regarding the possibility of catching COVID-19 at one of his rallies, which are sure to have thousands of people crammed into a tight space with poor ventilation.  If you get the disease as a result of being at a Trump rally, you can't sue the campaign.

I say, let anyone who wants to go to a Trump rally and risk getting sick should go right ahead. If they come down with COVID, they'll help end the pandemic sooner by developing heard immunity.  Nice to see them take one for the team!  Me, I'll probably be celebrating Juneteenth with one or more of my black friends. 

Via Zoom, of course.

But not with any Kiss records, though.