Dear Editor:
I have found the back-and- forth between Robert Wise and Peter Gilderson interesting, but I'm compelled to address Mr. Gilderson. It must be cozy living in his world of denial...nothing to fear! He recently countered that he had listed 11 "achievements" of Trump's, so I wish to counter those:
There are indeed new laws to prevent transgender males from participating in girls' sports, although there was never any evidence that they would share locker rooms. So we are now "protected" from the handful (literally!), out of 350 million Americans, who might wish to play a sport after transitioning. Whew! SO glad that urgent issue has been resolved.
The boats bombed in the Caribbean were more likely supply boats traveling to the Netherlands Antilles. (Look it up!) These Dutch islands are famous for their popular resorts. Called the ABC Islands (Aruba, Bonaire, and Curacao), they get worldwide visitors for scuba diving and other resort activities. And they are a mere 50 miles north of the coast of Venezuela! Small boats travel to those islands every day, ferrying supplies from the mainland, and they are exactly like the boats our military blows out of the water claiming they're smuggling drugs to the U.S. They are not powerful enough to reach our mainland, but Trump needed an excuse to invade Venezuela....so, many innocent fishermen and merchants died. To date, there has been NO proof presented that even one of those boats was carrying drugs, but people like Mr. Gilderson don't ever seem to need any proof. AND, Trump pardoned former Honduran president Hernandez after he was convicted and imprisoned for drug trafficking! No payoff there, I'm sure!
Yes, Maduro was a bad guy, but why should we be involved in "regime change" in all these foreign countries? And Trump left all his cronies in place, even after Maria Machado gave him her Nobel medal to gain his support....and he took it!! Who does that?! The man is a whiny five-year-old! Pathetic! And now he's going after Cuba?!
Ah, Iran! The country we bombed last year "obliterating" their nuclear capabilities, the same country we are now at war with....to destroy their nuclear capability! Was Trump lying last summer, or is he lying now? Both scenarios cannot be true. And this bunch of idiots can't even agree on exactly why we bombed Iran. Trump is a bully, and Netanyahu goaded him into helping HIM and Israel with a problem that was NOT ours! Now, 20 countries are involved, our soldiers and innocent schoolgirls have died, it's costing billions of our tax dollars, and gas prices are skyrocketing. Leadership at its best?
As for immigration, if you think Trump's policies are good, you have a hole in your soul. ICE is arresting American citizens, legal immigrants, veterans, children, and anybody who isn't white that crosses their path. American citizens have been killed when peacefully protesting. I am sickened that anyone sees that horror as a positive accomplishment.
Speeches? Trump rambles better than most and often goes on for more than an hour without saying, well,...anything. Kamala Harris is well-spoken ("word salad?" When?!) And every president has used the autopen since it was invented...including Trump.
Minnesota was already addressing the fraud without federal intervention, and there has been little or no federal help for the California fire victims in the past year.
It is not the government's place to "fight" anything on college campuses, unless something illegal occurs. Colleges and universities are supposed to be safe spaces for freedom of speech and thought with differences to be debated and discussed in private and public forums. Government overreach in this area is typical of the Trump administration's overreach in way too many areas of American life.
And if Mr. Gilderson thinks Trump has lowered prices on ANYTHING, I'd like to know where he shops! My typical basket of items that used to cost $100 now costs $200 and has for months. What planet does he live on?
And the Supreme Court finally said what we all knew....the tariffs were illegal and a TAX on the American people! The countries Trump put the tariffs on paid nothing. Those costs were passed on to the US consumer and are now ordered to be refunded to the businesses who paid them, if they haven't already gone out of business. There are not "many" new plants being built, and it will be years until completion for the few that are.
So, the stock market has fallen...again...with the "war" in Iran raging, Trump finally dropped his stupid assault on Greenland (which we have had access to for years if we want to build bases there!), Mr. Gilderson's meds got less expensive (so happy for you!) while millions of other Americans have lost their health insurance and mine has gotten more expensive, and millions more are slated to lose their Medicaid by the end of the year. And while people are dying in the Middle East, Trump is golfing at Doral and meeting with sports executives about NIL money in college sports (?!) That's an urgent issue!
Finally, voter ID. I am well-prepared to show my picture ID to be able to vote. But if I were disabled, I should be able to mail in my ballot. AND, as a married woman of 48 years, my ID does not show my birth name. I will have to get my birth certificate, my marriage license, and send them somewhere? to get an "accurate" opinion of whether I'm an American citizen? Every married woman who changed her name will have to jump through hoops to be able to vote, and I believe the term for that is "discriminatory" and, I would go so far as to say, unconstitutional. Democrats have no problem with voter ID, but Donald Trump has a problem with anybody voting who isn't voting for him.
This country is in freefall with Trump and the most incompetent cabinet in US history running the show. Polio and measles are roaring back with children dying. Patel has gutted the FBI of veteran analysts who have been keeping us safe from foreign actors for decades. No one in the Pentagon knows what they're doing, and Republicans in Congress sit back and twiddle their thumbs while Trump blatantly breaks the law. The economy is in the tank, our farmers are in real trouble, but Republican voters will continue to vote Republican to their own detriment. After all, we can't let a transgender male play a woman's sport, can we?
Walterine Odom
