Readers Write: Who will watch out for our backs?

The Island Now

In the early 1950s, there was a television show “Racket Squad” that dramatized confidence games featuring ordinary citizens getting ensnared in different schemes which ended with the narrator, a captain in the police force warning: “There are people who can slap you on the back with one hand and pick your pocket with another…and it could happen to you.” It’s the art of deception, like diverting your attention from things that are really important.

Gayle Palmer does it in her letter, “Columnist presents false picture of the U.S.A.” She begins with the topic, history of slavery in America, blaming the Democrats, quoting an extreme rightist on critical race theory and writes about bigotry from a white person’s point of view. Then she jumps on what she sees as President Biden’s failure on the economy, crediting Trump for making it stronger. She goes on about how not one Republican voted for the American Rescue Plan, closing with all the wrong moves in her view Biden is making covering inflation, illegal immigration, tax hikes and more negatives than one can imagine.

I am not the one to dispute her charges, but I believe that the the writers of those columns, supporting the opposite sides in all those issues, have more background than she does and I’m sure they would love to participate in a debate with her. However, by her focusing on those issues, she tries to take our focus off the three major problems facing our country in the same way that most of the Republican congressional representatives are doing these days.

First is the coronavirus pandemic that already has killed over 615,000 people in America. Most Republicans in power urge their constituents not to take the vaccine that has proven to be highly effective against the disease. Why? Why? Why?

Second is the Jan. 6 insurrection, the attack on the Capitol, that injured over 150 law enforcement officers and threatened the lives of many of our congressional representatives, including Vice President Pence, destroying government property in the process. Recent revelations show that Trump tried to change the election results by instructing our nation’s top law enforcement agency to take steps to overturn a free and fair election in the final days of his presidency.

In essence, he was trying to destroy our democracy. Regarding the actual attack, you can’t blame Republicans loyal to Trump who claim the Capitol riot looked more like a “normal tourist visit.” For them, this type of loyalty meant more to them than the oath they took to uphold the Constitution. Perhaps they missed watching or listening to the four law officers giving their harrowing testimony of defending the Capitol on Jan. 6 before the house select committee.

Third is the Republicans’ push for new voting restrictions in many states, with more on the horizon, even though there has been no evidence of voter fraud in the past election. In the most basic terms, these new proposed laws would make it harder for Americans to vote. The right to vote is the “Essence of a Democratic Society.”

In conclusion, why bother writing about the coronavirus pandemic or the Jan. 6 insurrection or voting restrictions when all it could do is hurt your party’s chances to win the election. Deception! Fake facts! Enough! Let’s get back on track. “Truth, Justice and the American Way.”

He’s not Superman, but President Biden is as close as we can get. At least he’ll watch out for our backs.

Alvin Goldberg,

Great Neck

TAGGED: Alvin Goldberg
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