It’s been a journey of learning in listening to the mantra-of-the-moment from people or groups that have a pulpit for the topic of the minute.

We had the theme of “connect the dots” from Nancy Pelosi some years ago over some now-forgotten, allocated conservative frailty and later it was Pelosi’s “astroturf” bashing the grass roots organizing of The Tea Party.

April 2014 brought the whimsical bandwagon for #BringBackOurGirls arising from the 300 Nigerian teens kidnapped for vile and lascivious reasons by Boko Haram terrorists. Michelle Obama got in on that one. The hashtag is now gone, as (still) are most of the girls.

I’ve been writing about the contemptible Al Sharpton and his shameful allies conveniently pushing “BlackLivesMatter” as they exhibit precisely the antitheses with their actions. Every event that could be linked to ethnicity, valid or not, resulted in, “America needs to have a dialogue.”

For one, I’m in total agreement with that; however, as I pointed out in last Friday’s commentary, dialogue is the last thing “they” want. Moreover, the bashers: 1) often do not react with a real or full name; 2) fail to refute with any supporting facts versus merely throwing garbage; and 3) frequently fail to respond to the original topic.

I gave exact, verifiable citations as proof.

Coincidentally, in the same couple of days, on one of the local SCV blogs, a man posted the true-life headline, “Mexican Illegal Alien Arrested for Allegedly Raping 13-year-old.”

Considering this headline emerged freshly after the illegal alien killed Kathryn Steinle and while Obama is visiting a federal prison to free criminals, I responded.

I wrote (using my true identity): “Boy, the critics are looking pretty bad with each passing day, proving Donald Trump’s earlier assessments as correct. American taxpayers will give this creep lawyers, food, medical care, whatever he wants, then house him, continue his care for decades to come. That is unless, of course, Obama visits his prison and decides to free this fine young man, because after all, he probably just didn’t understand it was not OK to kidnap this girl, hide her, drug her then sexually assault her for a couple of days … because ‘Hernandez-Gomez hails from Chiapas, Mexico, where the sexual age of consent is 12’ … and what a fine defense that will be. Only in America.”

Linda (who forthrightly and respectably gave her full name) replied: “Betty – My niece was sexually assaulted by her stepfather, American born. There are plenty of sexual abusers out there, including in the Duggar Family (such good Christians). No one is defending sexual abuse, so stop with trying to lay this at the feet of our president. BTW if you don’t like our legal system of justice, feel free to come up with a better one.”

My response to Linda was: “Thank you for helping make my point. It would be very hard to find a family that didn’t have an in-family, American-born criminal to claim; perverts, predators and molesters among the worst that ultimately murder souls. So with our own rapists, why are we importing them? Why go to the stratosphere that (just) sexual abuse is laid ‘at the feet of our president?’ What is at his feet is ignoring a porous border and failing to step up and lead the country to actually follow our country’s immigration laws. I do have a few better legal system ideas: Follow the Constitution and laws we have; stop diluting criminal convictions with pleading down crimes that lead to massive releases, freeing felons into the public, often without time served. Use the pen and phone to immediately direct the appointed Attorney General and the DOJ to act swiftly and stop dragging out the prosecutions, and sentences … For all criminals. That’s a few for starters.”

I found it telling that the original topic was not addressed. Specifically, yet another criminal illegal alien being allowed to remain in this country, break law after law and endanger lives of children, while we have an administration that is not protecting American citizens or anyone here legally.

Dismissing the fundamental illegal rapist issue, the responder chose to defend Obama – who indeed has both issues at his feet – illegally residing criminals and executing the laws of our land.

Linda did not reply, but through no fault of hers. When I tried to submit my last message; the entire post was gone … oddly and mysteriously taken down.

Once again, no dialogue.

Betty Arenson has lived in the SCV since 1968 and describes herself as a conservative who’s concerned about progressives’ politics and their impacts on the country, her children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren. She says she is unashamed to own a gun or a Bible, couldn’t care less about the color of the president’s skin, and demands that he uphold his oath to protect and follow the Constitution of the United States in its entirety.