In Herald Publisher Art Hall's September 6th column -- "Is America Really Flying Apart?" -- he calls for cool heads to prevail in these turbulent times.
That's fine. I agree. But, keeping our heads doesn't mean burying them in the sand.
What I can't concur with is the Publisher's seeming inability to grasp the gravity of President Donald Trump's inexcusable fascist chaos.
More than once in his recent columns, Mr. Hall has seriously implied that America's present unrest largely can be blamed on discontented Democrats still whimpering over their election loss to a Charlotan.
Just a handful of racist agitators and a bunch of cry baby cupcakes that are stirring the hornet's nest, Hall essentially proffers. That's pretty much it.
Our antiquated two-party political system -- which feeds an "us" versus "them" mindset -- indeed too easily divides.
But these troubling times are unlike any other. They demand that political party allegiances be shed to stand for country.
So, with all due respect, I submit that the Publisher is employing the same blind partisanship he charges the Left with.
And by doing so, he trivializes the President's complete and utter failure to lead; the Publisher comes dangerously close to normalizing what, in so many aspects, is a hideously abnormal presidency.
The only hint of acknowledging Trump's glaring ineptitude as President these past disastrous seven plus months, was to say that he has been "unable to rise above the fray."
Allow me to clarify. Not only does the impulsive President lack any ability to keep his powder dry -- think of his "fire and fury" shot across the bow towards North Korea -- but he is this country's premier agitator.
Fear-mongering is Trump's greatest talent. He purposely has been inciting and dividing our nation for two tumultuous years -- all to pursue a narcissistic scheme of self-enrichment at the people's expense.
Every single cabinet appointee of Trump's represents interests gratingly antithetical to God's people, but favorable to the corporate world -- Big Pharma, Wall Street and fossil fuel mega-billionaires like Charles and David Koch.
Now, so much is at risk: environmental protections, healthcare for the sickest and poorest, a living wage, free speech, a free press, gun control law, Wall Street regulation and national security.
In his column, the Publisher neglects to credit the millions of justice-minded, peaceful protesters across this nation who have held Trump to account since his surreal inauguration -- which he proclaimed would be remembered as "the day the people became the rulers of this nation."
There's no telling how much worse off we'd be without concerned citizens exercising their First Amendment rights by voicing opposition to discriminatory policies like the travel ban, Trumpcare and ending DACA.
If Trump really gave a rat's tail about his fellow man, he wouldn't have needlessly tossed a monkey wrench into the lives of 800,000 young immigrants who have called America home from their earliest memories.
If that's how Trump shows his professed "love" for the Dreamers, by so casually and viscerally threatening their American dream, why would anyone of us for a second think our own American dream is safe under a Trump presidency?
Trump consistently proves how grotesquely unqualified he is to be our commander-in-chief -- whether it's regaling 40,000 Boy Scouts with corrupting stories of shysters at cocktail parties or failing to reject the pledged alliance of hatemonger, former KKK Grand Dragon, David Duke.
The writing has been on the wall in glaring pitch black letters for endless months now. But still so many, my fellow Christian brothers and sisters included, fail to have "eyes to see" and "ears to hear" the truth.
Such persistant darkness, as perpetuated by the Trump cabal, gone unchallenged only leads to doom. Look no further than Hitler's Nazi Germany.
The American people can't afford to wait for Trump to lay all his cards on the table. By then it will surely be too late.
So, cool heads prevail? Absolutely. But sitting idly by while Trump tramples over our Godly values and Democratic principles?
Seems a form of censorship. A squelching of the free speech Americans hold so dear
ReplyDeleteA fair critique and challenge of the editors premise it seems to me
ReplyDeleteI thought so. That's how "letters" to the editor have worked since the founding of this country I'd think. It's called free speech.Letters have traditionally and typically been an opportunity to respectfully challenge and offer counter points to opinions and other letters. But now we are living in a hypersensitive age thanks to Trump. Perhaps, it will work for our betterment, as we are forced to respond with surgical precision, as unoffensive as possible, to Trump's chaos.
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