Let’s finally do what we know how to do
We know how to do things that are really important, but we don’t.
For instance, we know how to educate all our children (K-12), but we don’t. We know how to teach teachers to teach, but we don’t. We know that first-rate medical care can be universal and economical, but we won’t do it. We know how safely to welcome immigrants, whether to work and/or aspire to be citizens, but what we do is done “on the sly” and with hardship and cruelty. We know the importance of maximizing citizen participation as the keystone to our democracy, but we allow “big money” and voter suppression.
We know that 100 years of drug prohibition “hath wrought” carnage beyond description, but we ignore the alternative – legalization. We wring our hands as we despair over the thousands of over-dose deaths.
Studies show that there are almost no deaths to addicts under medical care. But the “good guys” keep choosing “war,” not realizing the overdose deaths are on their hands.
We know how to solve these very important problems. The wheel has been invented. We need to climb aboard and get rolling.
Blake Moore
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Trump’s recklessness demeans presidency
Ever since President Trump accused Barack Obama of wiretapping the Trump Tower during the 2016 campaign, his loyalists have tried desperately to explain or defend the accusation. One effort was especially noteworthy: Press Secretary Sean Spicer’s laughable resort to “air quotes” to buttress his claim that the president was speaking rhetorically.
Mr. Trump’s Twitter accusations are alienating members of his own party, with GOP congressmen asserting there was no evidence to back up the wiretap charge. That suggests they’ve concluded he’s lying.
The president’s mendacity reminds me of a 1979 Dick Cavett talk show in which he interviewed the writer Mary McCarthy, who at the time was locked in a long-running feud with another writer, Lillian Hellman.
When Mr. Cavett asked her thoughts on overrated authors, Ms. McCarthy mentioned Ms. Hellman, “a bad writer, and dishonest writer.” Asked about the word “dishonest,” Ms. McCarthy replied that “every word she writes is a lie, including ‘and’ and ‘the.'”
There is a corollary to her comment that applies directly to Mr. Trump: His reckless accusations are demeaning the presidency – and thus the American people to whom the office belongs. Soon he’ll be unable to redeem himself.
Michael Loftin