COLUMN: A Confederate Yankee
Trump needs to think about impacts of words, actions
The nation has endured a year of Donald J. Trump. Barely. A carefully-scripted SOTU speech, read from a teleprompter by a man who could not, by the wildest stretch, write, was loudly praised by equally inept supporters. It was filled with half-truths and accompanied by outright lies. It did nothing to elevate America, at home or abroad.
One of the most horrifying aspects is the utter lack of understanding on the part of those supporters of the seriousness of the damage done to America’s reputation abroad. He has outraged those who’ve been our allies for more than a hundred years, and that will level upon this nation immensely in terms of commerce and military alliances.
We have a mighty military force. But even the world’s mightiest cannot impose its will on the rest of the world. We’ve been at war in the Middle East for what – 17 years? And have not forced the enemy to capitulate. It’s Vietnam all over again, where our troops would shatter opposing forces, only to have them come back again and again, killing, injuring, destroying. The stated goal of “winning hearts and minds” didn’t work while we bombed the hell out of ’em, and it won’t work now. Yet we not only blunder on – and that’s one area wherein I seriously challenged Barak Obama – we are posed, under Donald Trump, to escalate the nonsense. Tens and hundreds of thousands of his supporters urge him on, leading this old vet to reflect that, as was said in the early 1970s, that we’re all Bozos on this bus, led by our Clown-in-Chief, a/k/a “The Donald.”
Seventeen freakin’ years and we’re nowhere near any semblance of victory.
The populace is in a funk…no, we’re filled with rage. I understand; I really do. It seems to so many of us that the world is spinning out of control, threatening all we hold dear. We’ve felt like that since Sept. 11, 2001. We’re scared. We’re afraid of losing it all, though that threat is wildly overblown. We react in misguided attacks on “the other.” He’s Muslim. He’s black. He’s Latino. He’s Navajo, Apache, Crow, Mandan – real Native American, whom we do not at all understand. And instead of recognizing and accepting the validity of our fellow red-blooded white citizens’ differing opinions, we turn fire and fury upon them. It’s so easy to rant and hurl insults…I’ve been as guilty of that as anyone…but it’s not only not going to change minds, it’s going to further widen the gap and worsen the divides among us.
And that, neighbors, is what makes America more seriously vulnerable than any terrorist organization can possibly equal!
Grr! Donald, you are the most serious threat America has experienced since the depths of the Cold War – and the trigger that can start that war is far too tempting. You need to back off, mister, before your insanity ends life as we all know it…and that includes you and your family.
Kindly getcher head out, Donald J. Trump.
William D. “Bill” Mayers RT, RN, of Sullivan is a retired senior U.S. Army Corpsman. A certified healthcare professional since 1964, he holds two professional licenses, including that of Registered Professional Nurse licensed in New York, Alaska, Virginia and Louisiana. He has four children, two stepchildren, three grandchildren, a new great-grandchild and is an avid analyst of current events.