President Trump has been having a bad time recently, after the news of North Korea’s apparent development of a nuclear device that could be attached to a missile.
Naturally this caused additional anxiety regarding the danger of its use. Instead of a rational response about the most reasonable planning, Trump immediately chose to make threats of a violent reaction.
Added to the public uproar that this engendered was the suggestion of a military response to the embattled president in Venezuela and his flagrant coziness with tyrants in Russia, Venezuela, Saudi Arabia, Turkey and the Philippines. Does this encourage us to question the suitability of his serving as the leader of the most powerful nation in the world?
Beyond that is his alienation of the nations with whom we need to relate to preserve a deep relationship because our very civilization has been supported by their cultures.
The survival of our environment is urgently threatened by his abysmally shortsighted rejection of climate change.
The loss of regard for him was also evident at the G20.
And, closer to home, all around us it is clear that he has no real understanding of what we have fought for in our beloved society.
Our inclusivity and our uniqueness have survived many serious dangers, and we continue to work hard to maintain them when they have been threatened. His insincere concern for those in need of work and an education and comprehensive health care is expressed when it suits him, but is quickly forgotten.
May I remind you of the problems that he lacks the intelligence or morality to be supporting?
From the outset , he has questioned the birthplace of Obama, has been unquestionably been a cheat in business, cheapened our presidential campaign with his bullying, disrespected the dignity of women, mocked so many groups that deserve respect and consideration: the disabled, gays and transgendered, our quilt of many colors.
Of late, Trump, fearful of losing his base because he has produced little that he promised them, he has resorted to bigger and bigger lies, and of course, used tweets instead of press conferences because he cannot answer questions intelligently.
At rallies, which are safer for him, he has encouraged followers to threaten the opposition; at the Boy Scout Jamboree, he made an inappropriate speech to boys and their families that the organizers had to apologize for; at a law enforcement meeting, he encouraged his audience to reduce proper consideration for the treatment of arrestees; he has supported the creation of a commission to explore voter fraud, a waste of money and time, and that other studies have disproved. The worst effect has been the possibility of fewer voters.
Need I say more about the chaos in the White House, the reluctance of experts to serve him and not enough criticism from his party and some of his appointees.
If this is not enough, when the president was urged to condemn the protestors at a demonstration against the proposed removal of a statue of Robert E. Lee, instead of an expected strong condemnation of the attack organized by white supremacists, KKK, and Nazis and the resulting catastrophic death of a woman who opposed it and the bedlam and injuries, Trump’s speech lumped the right of all to protest as equal.
He characterized the conduct on all sides to be regrettable. He has been roundly vilified, but still has not made any move to clarify his reaction.
This marks him as unable to separate right from wrong. Wrong is wrong and he is forever guilty if he truly operates from that standard.
Esther Confino
New Hyde Park
