Letters to the Editor published in the Sept. 23, 2020 issue of the Tomahawk Leader.
Trump has failed us
Dear Editor,
What kind of leader do we need when we face a dangerous global pandemic? One that recognizes the severity of the problem early on, informs the American public in a straightforward way, builds trust in the health science community, outlines a rigorous national program to combat it, and rallies the people to fight the disease together.
Donald Trump has failed as a leader. From the beginning, he told the American people this was not a serious problem, that it was under control and would simply disappear. He refused to take meaningful federal action, instead shunting the responsibility to states, which have come up with a hodgepodge of inadequate responses. We are left with not nearly enough testing and tracing and our frontline healthcare providers lack the equipment and staff to deal with the situation.
There has been one notable national action Trump has taken: he has insisted on opening the economy and the schools despite the warnings of health experts. This predictably led to a new surge, which keeps our economy crippled and our students in danger. The result is that we are nearing 200,000 deaths, and our per capita case total and percentage of deaths far exceeds those of all other Western industrialized countries.
Recently, recordings of Trump’s interviews with Bob Woodward have surfaced. In his own voice, Trump admits he knew the problem was serious early on and that he lied to the American people about it.
We need a true leader who can handle a serious crisis, one that is concerned about protecting the American people rather than painting a fake, rosy picture to help his re-election chances. Trump has failed us.
David Barnhill
Hazelhurst
The American Dream is under Attack
America is under siege by a small but growing groups of BLM & Anitfa members who want socialism. These groups are being given political cover by the Democrats and the co-conspirator media who call them protesters. They have caused great damage to these cities that are being run by radical left politicians that call themselves “progressive”, who do little if nothing to stop devastation under the disguise of peaceful protesters.
Minneapolis suffered the loss of a half a Billion dollars in damages. While the burning, destruction & looting took place the police were told by their Democratic government leaders to stand down. Cities were destroyed. These groups only want the USA as we know it shut down. This would be a total make over. No more capitalism. We would depend only on the government and the American spirit to excel would disappear. Americans think this will pass, but let me give you a reminder of what the left is about and always has been:
See if the following is happening in you city or community.
- A) Corrupt the young, get them away from religion, get them interested in sex, make them superficial, and destroy their ruggedness.
- B) Get control of all means of publicity thereby:
- Get the peoples mind off of their government by focusing their attention on athletes, sexy books, and plays and other trivialities.
- Divide the people into hostile groups by constantly harping on controversial matters of no importance.
- Destroy the people’s faith in natural leaders by holding the latter up to contempt, ridicule and obloquy.
- Always preach true democracy, but seize power as fast and as ruthlessly as possible.
- By encouraging government extravagance, destroy its credit, produce fear of inflation with rising prices and general discontent.
- Foment unnecessary strikes in vital industries, encourage civil disorder and foster lenient and soft attitude on the part of government toward such disorders.
- By specious argument, cause the breakdown of the old moral virtues, honesty, sobriety, confidence, faith in the pledged word, ruggedness.
- Cause the registration of all firearms on some pretext, with a view toward confiscating them and leaving the population helpless.
I hope you see what I see in the above. I see the radical lefts play book right now and if we as Americans don’t wake up and take action, we’ll go down in history as a failed Republic. The extremists acknowledge that it is ok for hundreds of rioters to fill the streets and burn and destroy business and attack law enforcement, but we law abiding citizens can’t attend church services and have family gatherings but organizations like BLM can do whatever they want in the cities, block the highways have companies changing names under threats of boycotts, sport teams changing names, cancelling shows, movies and even have cartoons changing to appease these domestic intimidation groups.
Wake Up America
James K. Meunier
Tomahawk
What do you think you are accomplishing?
This is an open letter to those individuals who have been going around the area and stealing “Biden for President” campaign signs.
Just what do you think you are accomplishing? Do you really think that anyone will change his or her vote because of your theft? If you claim to support a “law & order” candidate, how does trespassing and theft fit into that mindset?
Notice to the individual or individuals who trespassed on our property and stole a Biden sign – we have filed a complaint with the Lincoln County Sheriff’s Department.
A consequence of your actions is the real damage caused to the community. Fewer and fewer neighbors now trust each other. Should I suspect my immediate neighbors who tend to hold different political viewpoints than my husband and I? I never worried about that before because we all live with the guarantee of a First Amendment right of free speech. But now? Are we descending into a new lawlessness and irresponsibility because some politician or hate-filled radio talk or TV show told you that you could?
On a positive note, I would like to thank the City Council for protecting the health of our community by refusing to permit mass gatherings during this pandemic. I respect those downtown businesses that planned to close during what-was-to-be the Fall Ride weekend. Thank you for thinking first of your employees and local customers.
We always try to shop locally when possible, but to those businesses (along with their customers) that refuse to comply with the mask mandate; we are shopping elsewhere. To those businesses that do require masks or provide a front door or curbside pick up for those of us who should not risk unnecessary exposures, a heart-felt thank you.
Diana C. Smith
Tomahawk