We have grown dangerously accepting of many of Trump’s authoritarian habits. We tolerate his tweets calling for the investigation of his political opponents, closure of critical media outlets, firing FBI head James Comey and undercutting the State Department because, “I’m the only one that matters.”
Have we come to the point where these statements and actions are the “new normal”?
David Shribman, executive editor of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, observes how these events have crowded our civic life today, “seldom remarked upon, swiftly forgotten, lost in the blur that Americans have had to grow accustomed to in one of the most frantic and frenetic presidential years in history.”
We need to be alert to Trump’s brazen disregard for our First Amendment protections. Many of Trump’s statements and actions flout these rights.
Witness the following: In response to Colin Kaepernick kneeling during the national anthem last year, critics, with Trump’s support, exclaimed he was disrespecting the flag and showing contempt for the national anthem.
But mandating respect for the flag and anthem violates First Amendment freedoms of speech, thought and religious conscience.
The Trump White House repeatedly seeks to discredit the press, threatens to strip broadcasters of their licenses and calls for the firing of journalists for speaking their minds. But the First Amendment ensures that the government can’t stop speech before it happens and the government can’t censor speech because it disagrees with what that speech says.
Shribman notes that Trump regularly challenges news reporting, dismissing negative stories as “fake news.” But in the United States, we have the right to decide for ourselves what national songs and symbols stand for and we cannot be forced to conform our views to any officially approved meaning or narrative.
Abraham Lincoln warned that, “America will never be destroyed from the outside. If we falter and lose our freedoms, it will be because we destroyed ourselves.”
Bob Scobie
Lebanon
It’s increasingly difficult to come up with new adjectives to describe the current president and his outrageous, divisive and embarrassing behavior. Louis Menand, in his Jan. 8 article in The New Yorker, may have nailed it: “toxic nitwit.”
It is way, way past time for the spineless and self-serving surrogates and sycophants in Congress to demonstrate some courage, fulfill their constitutional duty and send this pretender packing before he does something truly dangerous.
Perhaps, as a self-proclaimed “stable genius,” he could sign on with one of those s—hole countries and make them great again. Oh, but then we get Trump’s holier-than-thou chief lackey and apologist Mike Pence, who sold his soul to the Koch brothers. Tough call.
For the sake of past, present and future generations, we need to turn this ship around before it’s too late.
Curt Albee
South Strafford
I cannot believe how unfit Donald Trump is to be the head of the military. If he had even one-half of a commander’s qualifications, he would know that hurling childish insults at the enemy is not only inappropriate and unproductive, but risking millions of lives. It may sound like exaggeration, but underestimating Kim Jong Un could start a nuclear war. To Trump, it’s just a game of “mine is bigger than yours.” If only Trump could realize his duty to keep America safe for future generations.
Trump should never have stepped into the presidency. He does not have the values of the average traditional American. How can he possibly represent us? What would a billionaire know about the lives and values of average Americans? Most worrisome is his lack of military judgment. Just because you’re little doesn’t mean you can’t be deadly. Many commanders in history found that out.
Melinda Hunt
Enfield
I was delighted to see the recent Out & About feature on Neysa Russo (“Corinth Felt Artist Creates Scenes From the Middle Ages,” Jan. 7). I encountered her and her work a couple of years ago at the Dartmouth Crafts Fair, and it was with great nobility, in light of the lightness of my wallet that day, that I bought one of her lady ornaments as a gift for a friend, denying one to myself. (I got mine the following year.)
The word “inspiration” is overused, but she certainly is one to an enthusiastic but still amateur devotee of the fiber arts such as I. And really, the constellations of heaven were in their optimum conjunction this past week. I went bravely through the snow to my favorite Upper Valley destination, and lo! It was crafts day at Listen. My only regret is that I had only two arms, though they are able, of course, to carry multiple bags. They needed to. I came home with 25 skeins of yarn.
Sarah Crysl Akhtar
Lebanon