One never ceases to be amazed at just how low the left-stream media will go to denigrate President Donald Trump. Aaron Dodson, a writer for ESPN’s The Undefeated blog, went all the way to the ground to promote a gutter level attack on the Republican executive in chief. Part of a recurring series of stories on athletic sneakers, Dodson’s caustic post is a direct attack on American veterans as well.
Dodson profiled the tasteless work of Danielle Mastrion, who was commissioned by movie producer Spike Lee to create sneakers protesting the president. As Dodson writes of Lee, “He wanted the words ‘Repel Agent Orange’ and ‘Resist’ on them. In big, bold and clean letters.” Lee wanted the shoes for self-adulation -- to celebrate his 60th birthday party.
That’s what Mastrion delivered, much to Lee’s delight. She researched “historical Cuban, German and Russian propaganda posters to ensure that she got the bold lettering just right. He gave me specific directions on the colors, on the lettering and the placement, so that he really oversaw the creation of sneakers. He had a very clear vision in his mind what he wanted them to represent. He gave me a lot of directions for those.”
And Mastrion demonstrated an utter lack of human decency in following Lee’s instructions, Dodson writes:
“The words, depicted on both sides of each shoe, were done with Posca, Molotow and Deco paint markers — ‘Repel Agent Orange’ painted in red and ‘Resist’ painted in white, both gone over with acrylic paint and brush, to complement the gold Nike Swooshes on the shoes.”
Mastrion told Dodson she usually doesn’t mix her politics with her work, but this occasion called for an exception. “I try to paint more inspirational figures, but I feel like this is the time when people, especially artists, do need to be a little bit more outspoken, so I didn’t mind doing the message at all.”
A little outspoken?
These shoes are not only outrageous and hateful attacks on President Trump, but totally calloused and insensitive insults to Vietnam veterans. Agent Orange is a highly toxic chemical that was used to destroy forest cover for North Vietnamese and Viet Cong troops in the Vietnam War. More than two million U.S. soldiers exposed to Agent Orange suffered from resulting cancer, leukemia, Hodgkin’s disease and other serious health problems. Making light of this deadly chemical in order to gain attention on social media is truly despicable.
Nevertheless, Lee was extremely pleased with the shoes and social media is where he took it. Upon the delivery of her designer shoes, Lee told Mastrion “she did a great job and gave her a hug. More praise, however, came on his Instagram account, where he posted a photo of him holding each shoe, with the message, “RESIST – REPEL AGENT ORANGE. DATS DA PUTIN TRUTH, RUTH. YA-DIG? SHO-NUFF. BY ANY MEANS NECESSARY.”
What kind of resistance is this? It is resistance to human decency and to extreme human suffering.
