With Trump's actions, 'quiet' is no option
I've been quiet too long. I've watched quietly as the president said John McCain was not a war hero. I've stood by as the president denigrated a young dead soldier's pregnant wife. I've watched as the president gives support and comfort to our nation's racial bigotry. I watch him divide the nation, holding children hostage, threatening deportation, so that he can fulfill a campaign promise to build a wall. I've watched as he cuts the nation's moral fiber, bragging about his sexual assaults and his second grade name-calling. I've watched as the president called half of Congress treasonous because they didn't applaud his speech.
I've been quiet too long and stood by too long and I have to draw my line in the sand. As a decorated veteran, I can no longer be quiet and stand by while your president orders our military to march in the streets of our nation's capitol. Oh, I know. He will tell you it is to honor our military and those who served. That's a lie. He wants to show Russia, China and North Korea that his is bigger than theirs. This is self-serving and he needs this to feel powerful.
I'm not going to stand by any longer. I'm not going to be used by this tyrant as he demands that our military march in the streets of Washington for his own self-aggrandizement.
Every veteran should feel the same outrage. I -- no, we -- owe it to those who gave their ultimate sacrifice and didn't come home, to those who did not come home whole, to those who still carry their wounds and to the families of each of those soldiers, to stand up and be heard with your letters, phone calls and votes in November. We will not be used by this president and you should not let him use you.
Larry Meyer
Fayetteville
Divisions make work of enemies easier
Have the conservative writers quit writing letters to the editor? It seems the liberal writers outnumber the more conservative writers by a larger percentage now than ever before. Is their thinking "the squeaky wheel gets the grease?"
I've heard it said, "Go the opposite direction from the majority and you'll be right the majority of the time." My thinking tends to follow that track, especially when every tweet our president makes is jumped on immediately and a lot of negative ideas used from it. Tweeting so often may be a bad habit. I suppose Obama and all the Democrats who agree with him don't have any bad habits. If that's the case, they are perfect. Yeah! And to all those people who believe that, I've got a bridge in Brooklyn I'd like to sell them.
One "Yellow Dog" writer wrote in a letter sometime back that "we aren't going away." It seems those folks would desire to split this country down the middle. Why else would they say "not our president?" Past presidents have had some faults, but Americans who love the country did not turn their backs on them. And as a result, our country remained strong.
Our enemies (ISIS and others) love to see our people divided. It makes their work a lot easier and they can drive wedges in the crevices, even in this country. Witness to that could be the mass shootings, which are cropping up here and there all across the nation.
William Schaefer
Lincoln
Commentary on 02/10/2018