Two Out of Three Ain't Bad

Three letters in the Post Star today. Two were wonderful. Tillie Merrill:

This letter is for all those Trump lovers who keep saying get over it, you lost, we won. Please don’t tell me to get over anything. It’s your privilege to admire who you want, but don’t tell me how I should feel because it is my privilege to dislike whom I wish. This is my country also and not a school yard game where you say, ha ha we won.

He will never in my lifetime be regarded as my president of my country. So gloat, gloat, gloat and rejoice all you want and have a wonderful four years with your idol who is an egotistical, bigoted nobody who found out that money can buy you anything, even a country.

Just remember, nothing buys forever for him or any of us. We all end up the same way eventually whether you are a poor man or a rich man. So gloaters, get over that.

And Bernice Mennis:

I’ve been inspired by the courage, wisdom, dignity of native water-protectors at Standing Rock, facing brutal police power and chilling weather. When 2,000 veterans joined them as protective buffer, my heart felt uplifted. When the Army Corp of Engineers stopped the Dakota Access Pipeline, 

I felt joy that truth won over corporate power.

When I heard Evan McMullin, conservative candidate for president, speak of danger to democracy in pronouncements of “I, alone,” threats to free press, denial of inalienable human rights based on gender, religion, ethnicity, “religious freedom” used to defend discrimination, I appreciated his naming what threatens our Constitution, as I’ve appreciated The Post-Star’s unbiased clear thoughtful reflection.

Trump has given power to “swampy predators” he condemned: CEOs of big banks, Exxon Mobil, coal, pharmaceutical and insurance companies, profiteers of foreclosures. He bragged about removing regulations diminishing corporate profits. I want regulations: restraining banks and Wall Street from immoral greed, protecting air, water, earth, food, workers’ safety, farm animals. He’s chosen people who’d defund and privatize public schools, national parks, veterans’ hospitals, Social Security, Medicare. I want our common good.

I thought of an old Union song, “Which side are you on?” We know suffering when water is toxic, poisoned by mercury and iron, pipes leak, oil trains crash, oil spills, pesticides contaminate. We want children inhabiting a healthy bountiful planet? Renewable energy provides good jobs, good wages.

When Spanish conquistadors searched for gold, they arrogantly dismissed knowledge of native peoples who knew the earth – what plants fed and healed, where water could be found. We need that knowledge.

Bottom of Form

What do we choose, democracy enshrined in our Constitution or arrogant power? Reason and facts or sound bytes and fake news? The earth and its incredible diversity or insatiable greed threatening earth and life? What respects “sanctity of life,” protecting the sacred?

And then there's Don Sage:

I'm not going to besmirch my blog with the whole letter. He does tell us that he spent 2 and a half years in Vietnam. I admire him for that or sympathize or something. He ends his letter with:

 I encourage more folks to stand up and demand the jailing of that traitor Clinton and removal of all corrupt Clinton supporters from all public service.

I'm thinking he doesn't see the irony of fighting Communism in Southeast Asia for 2 and a half years, then coming back here and pushing for purges of select groups in government. 

On another topic: I was passing by a TV with Fox News on today. I know how Alice felt now. Judith Miller was on some show decrying fake news. Really.