A picture is circulating of Donald Trump at Arlington National Cemetery. Two features are striking. One, Trump’s pose. Two, the picture itself.
First, the pose. Trump smiles and strikes the “thumbs up” pose. Why? At Arlington? But this is Trump’s standard photographic pose, regardless of context. Context doesn’t matter; yet the context here is the burial site for our soldiers who fell in battle.
Second, recall the reason for the picture itself. The law, in addition to standards of decorum, forbids using military cemeteries for commercial or political purposes. The Trump campaign knew this. Further, this is our former, and perhaps our future, Commander in Chief. The Republican governor of Utah was present and grasped the offense. He apologized. A Trump handler manhandled the female official who objected.
Arlington originated as the confiscated plantation of Robert E. Lee. Certain sections are quiet; the visitors are reverential. Section 60, where the picture was taken, reveals young mothers who tend graves while their young children play among their young fathers’ headstones. The adults understand; the soldiers certainly understood, and even the children might grasp the fact that this is not the place to seek personal gain.
I’m Bob Evans and that is my perspective.
