Editor, Manteca Bulletin,

In a previous letter, I was hesitant to fully believe a tale from Frank Aquila where he told of a “brave black friend” who fearlessly entered an imaginary black neighborhood in Manteca because he was once a Marine. I made the comment that if Aquila had actually served at all, he might not need a Marine to work such an apparent dangerous and “uneducated” imaginary black neighborhood in Manteca. I compared this tale to Trump, who in an Arizona rally, pointed out a black man in the audience and said “Oh, Look at my little African-American over here”.

This prompted two responses, the first was from Aquila’s presumed imaginary friend which only casted more doubt in my mind because it seemed to be yet another page taken out of Trump’s playbook. Why? Because Aquila’s imaginary friend did nothing by praise Aquila “..his accomplishments in the Republican Party are very impressive” and how “He’s introduced me to some of the most powerful people in Republican Politics” never listing any of those “impressive accomplishments” or who those “..most powerful people” were. This has a direct comparison to an imaginary friend Trump called “Jim” who also did nothing but praise Trump for everything under the Sun. I also had to wonder, his being a former Marine, how he felt about Trump taking out FIVE deferments for fake bone spurs to keep from serving in Vietnam. I served from 62 to 66 and Trump’s lies made me sick to my stomach. 

The second response was from, I assume, a black man with anger issues. He started out by misquoting me, stating I said “...a black person can’t be a Republican and if a white person had a friend that is Republican, he must be an imaginary person”. I never said any of that and never even mentioned “Republican” at all. Because of what he miss-stated, he calls me a racist? Then he tells us a tale of a woman at a Democratic Registration booth who told him, because he was black, he belonged to the Democratic Party. I have very serious doubts that anyone, especially at a registration booth, would say that to a black man or any minority for that matter. Maybe that registration booth was also an imaginary place.  Apparently this guy’s anger issues have clouded his comprehension and his memory.

A curious item in both letters was that both quoted Trump’s question to Black voters during the campaign : “What do you have to lose?” Given that Trump himself recently claimed he was a “Nationalist”, knowing by his own words what using that word would signal to his White Nationalist supporters, as exemplified by the cheers from his rally crowd as he made that claim. How could these two not know exactly what they have to lose? Have they not watched those rallies or did they miss the White Nationalist parade in Charlottesville where Trump claimed there were “Good people” in that group. Really guys? You have nothing to lose?

Larry Baca

Manteca