By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com
President-elect Joe Biden did it again.
At a time when the nation reels from a bizarre act of violence in a major city, the man who is set to become president spoke words that should be coming from the individual who’s already in the office.
A suicide bomber detonated an explosive device in downtown Nashville, Tenn., on Christmas Day. Police found his remains inside the recreational vehicle he used to carry the bomb. It’s a miracle there were no fatalities in the blast.
Where was Donald J. Trump? Hmm. Playing golf in Florida, more than likely. He hasn’t spoken publicly about the frightening event in Nashville.
President-elect Biden did speak to us today about what transpired. He offered his congratulations and thanks to local and federal authorities for the quick work they did in identifying the bomber.
Joe Biden makes FIRST comments on Nashville bombing – YouTube
What strikes me yet again, though, is that we are hearing from the man who hasn’t yet taken the presidential oath while the man who has taken the oath remains squirreled away in his glitzy south Florida resort. The silence from Mar-a-Lago is deafening.
A sense of compassion and empathy from the president has been missing for the past four years. President Biden will restore it. He will speak to us when the moment compels him to do so and he will speak to us in terms to which we can relate.
The role of Consoler in Chief is not written into the presidential job description. But it’s there to be carried out when moments present themselves. Granted, we suffered no loss of innocent life in Nashville, but a president who feels a community’s pain should be able and willing to speak to a nation whose citizens are demanding answers.
Donald Trump, as we have seen time and again for the past four years, simply is not wired that way. Joe Biden clearly has the compassion gene that Trump never received.
A nation that has been deprived of that presidential compassion should welcome it when it arrives in the form of President Biden.