There was a Trump Parade in New Braunfels, Texas.  I spent many happy days of my childhood in New Braunfels tubing the Comal River and taking my own children back to build memories of their own.

New Braunfels has officially become the nastiest place in Texas.

They had a Trump parade that they call The Trump Train. That’s a thing in Texas, these parades. But this one was way beyond simply a thing.

The lead truck in the parade pulled a Black Lives Matter flag off the back bumper through town.

Why this is outrageously offensive is because in June of 1998, three white men in Jasper, Texas, tied the feet of James Byrd, Jr., to the underbelly of their pickup truck and drug him 3 miles on an asphalt road just because he was black.  After 3 miles, they hit a culvert and Byrd’s body was brutally dismembered.  They dumped the body parts in front of a black church. They were members of the a white supremacist organization.

Somebody in New Braunfels didn’t want black folks to forget. You know, like James Byrd, Jr. is something you could forget.

I believe in free speech and dragging that flag was free speech. But, with free speech comes much responsibility.

This is Trump’s America. These are the people who want to rule.  And do not tell me that this was just one person. People stood on the side of the road and cheered. There were at least 100 other cars in the parade and not one of them stopped this or dropped out.

It is not enough to just vote. We have to sweep the board. We have to overwhelm them, shame them, and make it uncomfortable for them to do crap like this.

I will never fully understand what it is to be black in America, but, dammit, I will stand.

Thanks to Martha for the heads up.