There is nothing admirable or civil in kicking somebody out of a restaurant, somebody who just wants to have a peaceful meal with family. According to the Red Hen restaurant owner, Sarah Huckabee Sanders left without a fuss. Good for her. She’s the only person in that story whose actions I respect.

Then I heard Maxine Waters’ speech, calling for this kind of stuff to happen on a widespread basis–in restaurants, department stores, gas station. As a Christian, that disgusted me. Just imagine where such attitudes and behavior would take us–actually, probably WILL take us, since this snake is now out of the bag. I’m expecting more examples of this kind of ugliness in the days ahead. It could even become the norm.

Michelle Obama has modeled, “When they go low, we go high.” Well, looks to me like liberals decided they prefer going low.

I agree with David Axelrod: “I am kind of amazed and appalled by the number of folks on Left who applauded the expulsion. This, in the end, is a triumph for @realDonaldTrump vision of America: Now we’re divided by red plates & blue plates! #sad.”

I read one columnist who said this public shaming is justified–that the Administration’s actions in separating immigrant families are so despicable, drastic action is needed. But you can contrive what I’ll call “justified outrage” over any administration, of any party, at any point in time. Republicans will always have the abortion issue–“They are killing children, so we’re going to hound them wherever they go.” Democrats have a range of issues to get outraged about against Republicans–militarism, racism, policies affecting poor children, and more. There will always be something.

Who will step in to calm this stuff? I see nobody. Normally, you would look to the President. George W. Bush played that role after 9/11 to calm the anti-Muslim hysteria, which could have resulted in terrible domestic violence against everyday Muslims. I admired that, and America needed it. But the current President has never shown any interest in calming anything. Instead, after the Red Hen situation, he played his typical 7th grade Mean Girl role, tweeting out his usual juvenile insults. We desperately need grownups. God help us.

Earlier this year, we (barely) recognized the 50th anniversary of the My Lai massacre. It was drowned out by the latest presidential tweets, but some attention squeaked through. Up to 500 Vietnamese–men, women, children, and infants–were massacred by a couple dozen American soldiers in two different hamlets. Some women were gang-raped and their bodies mutilated. It’s disturbing to think that Americans could do such a thing, but they did. WE did.

The entire world learned about My Lai. Learned what America was capable of. It’s a stain on our national character. But it was 50 years ago. There has been nothing similar since.

Then, during the Bush Administration, we had torture, Abu Graib, Guantanamo, renditions. We justified torturing prisoners, and we tortured a lot of them, routinely and repeatedly. News reports in countries around the world delivered the news–that the United States approved of torture. It shocked them, dashed their image of America.

Our current president approves of torture, but the nation won’t allow it. We’ve realized it’s wrong. Hopefully the world recognizes our about-face. And it’s been 15 years.

But now, in recent weeks, news outlets worldwide are showing pictures of US authorities forcing children away from their parents and taking them to special facilities. Most everyone, worldwide, is shocked by this. Don’t traumatize children: it’s kind of a universal value. And certainly don’t use them as bargaining chips to pursue a political agenda, as the administration admitted it was intentionally doing. I don’t think any of us are proud of this.

The world has seen, once again, that the United States is capable of great evil. And they are disappointed, because we’ve always stood for what’s right. And so much good still comes from us.

We stain our national character in other ways. We’ve got the world’s highest incarceration rate. Throw in the continual mass shootings, which no other nation experiences. We are among the world’s leaders in executing criminals, though most Western nations long ago rejected the death penalty. Throw in President Trump’s threats to use nuclear weapons, an idea the world, since the 1940s, has tried not to even whisper about because the consequences are so grave.

We bring shame on ourselves in so many ways. And we seem to keep finding ways to show the world that we are capable of great evil.

We claim to be a shining city on a hill. We usually have been. But that’s not what the world is seeing now. That really bothers me.

On Friday, President Trump basically admitted, “We’ll continue traumatizing children until you give me what I want.” He then outlined what he wanted–funding his border wall and other immigration policies. He saw innocent children, crying for their mothers and fathers, as a convenient bargaining chip. He admitted it. Administration officials tried to spin his words differently, as they are regularly required to do, but the President spoke plainly enough. He told us what was in his heart.

I’m not a fan of celebrity pardons. I want to see justice done in the prison system, but not restrict it to people who either know the President, know somebody who can get the President’s ear, or get on Fox & Friends to state their case during the President’s morning “executive time.” I’d prefer a more thoughtful, objective approach to pardons and commutations.

However, I care more than justice happen, regardless of the process. And in the case of Alice Johnson, whose sentence was commuted today by President Trump, justice was done. That gladdens me.

Johnson was convicted of a nonviolent, first-time drug offense, and given a ridiculous life sentence. And she has served 22 years. Such a sentence should never have happened.

So thank you, President Trump, for freeing this woman from prison. Justice was done. And thank you, Kim Kardashian, for using your influence to make it happen.