DEPLORABLE, MR. PRESIDENT

©Wendell Griffen, 2025

President Trump,

On Wednesday evening 67 people died in a tragic aviation accident when a passenger jet and military helicopter collided near Reagan National Airport. Their loved ones, colleagues, neighbors, and friends are grieving tremendous losses.

Their grief deserves our respect.

The deaths of their loved ones deserve our respect.

The trauma experienced by air traffic controllers, ground personnel, and others who witnessed the collision deserves our respect.

The brave responders working to recover the bodies of the 67 victims of that tragic accident need and deserve our respect.

Investigators from the National Transportation Safety Board who are charged by law with determining how the tragic aviation collision happened deserve our respect for their diligence, independence, and integrity.

You gave none of them the response that your office should have shown.

You did not demonstrate sorrow for the victims.

You did not show compassion for grieving loved ones, colleagues, and neighbors of the victims.

You did not call on the nation and world to pause, grieve, and show empathy.

Instead, you used the White House press room as a stage and the world as your audience for baseless propaganda against diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts and initiatives, the people who do that work, and its benefits in addressing systemic injustice.

Sir, your response, and that of your staff, was inexcusable.

The world has long known that you lack empathy for others. But until Thursday the world did not see your disdain for the sorrow of so many people displayed with such mendacity.

For the record, I am a pastor in the religion of Jesus and a retired judge.

My faith tradition, like that of other traditions, is clear about the moral and ethical issues that arise when people die in tragic circumstances.

All religions recognize that we should grieve with people who grieve, not disrespect their sorrow.

All religions hold that it is wrong to use the tragic deaths of people as an excuse for making false statements about them or their deaths.

Sir, your behavior, statements about the tragic deaths of 67 people, and your administration’s actions and statements that falsely characterize their deaths as attributable to DEI, is deplorable.

Please do not profane further the deaths of 67 people, the sorrow suffered by their loved ones, friends, colleagues, and neighbors, the trauma suffered by witnesses of the tragic accident, and the demanding work that is being done by NTSB investigators.

And please do not continue using this tragedy as political propaganda for your opposition to diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts, the people who do that work, and the way it has advanced justice.

Simply put, Mr. President, hush.

Wendell Griffen