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The Sunday Read: ‘Their Son’s Death Was Devastating. Then Politics Made It Worse.’

The Sunday Read: ‘Their Son’s Death Was Devastating. Then Politics Made It Worse.’

The Daily vor 1 Jahr

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35:51

A sheriff’s deputy arrived at Nathan and Danielle Clark’s front
door on the outskirts of Springfield, Ohio, in September with the
latest memento of what their son’s death had become. “I’m sorry
that I have to show you this,” she said and handed them a flier
with a picture of Aiden, 11, smiling at the camera after his last
baseball game. It was the same image the Clarks had chosen for
his funeral program and then made into Christmas ornaments for
his classmates, but this time the photograph was printed
alongside threats and racial slurs.

“Killed by a Haitian invader,” the flier read. “They didn’t care
about Aiden. They don’t care about you. They are pieces of human
trash that deserve not your sympathy, but utter scorn. Give it to
them … and then some.”

“They have no right to speak for him like this,” Danielle said.
“It’s making me sick. There must be some way to stop it.”

This was the version of the country the Clarks and their two
teenage children had encountered during the last year, ever since
Aiden died in a school bus crash in August 2023 on the way to his
first day of sixth grade. The crash was ruled an accident, caused
by a legally registered Haitian immigrant who veered into the bus
while driving without a valid license. But as the presidential
campaign intensified, former President Donald Trump and his
running mate, JD Vance, began to tell a different story.

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