It's 2017 and the United States of America is in turmoil over a screenshot from an internet video. Why? This screenshot is a picture of Kathy Griffin, a female comedian that is known for making fun of celebrities and NEVER apologizing, holding a bloodied head that shares a likeness with the President of the United States, Donald Trump. The country reacted in the same ways that it did when the 2016 election results were released, but the national outcry for her to apologize was new when compared to the history of hatred for presidential candidates that the U.S. has.
In 2012 an effigy of President Obama was set on fire in front of a church in Florida. This "lynching" was in response to the president being open with his thoughts on same-sex marriage and abortion. Also in 2012 another effigy of the president was hung from a tree in a California man's backyard. The national response? That this was just a misunderstanding, that there were no racial undertones. In 2008 effigies of the president were hung by nooses on college campuses. Both the University of Kentucky and George Fox University had groups of students tie likenesses to trees during the fall academic semester. None of the students involved served any time in jail for their "harmless" actions. Another incident in 2008 included an effigy of Sarah Palin being hung by a noose in a Halloween display that also featured a likeness of John McCain surrounded by flames.
In 2007 posters were shown on national news channels that read "Kill Bush Bomb His ... House" and "Bush is the disease, death is the cure". In 2004 one protester at the Anti-War Rally in San Francisco paraded around with a hung doll that had President Bush's face taped to it. In another San Francisco rally, an effigy of President Bush was set on fire following the election.
The practice of burning likenesses of presidents goes back as far as President Tyler in 1841, but the requirement of an apology has never been there.
Just a thought...