May 16, 2019 500 AM
Dear editor,
It has occurred to me that, if Trump were a senior military officer and not President of the United States, he would have been removed from his command a long time ago. The military cannot and does not tolerate any officer who compulsively lies, creates chaos among the ranks, uses his position for self-aggrandizement, or undermines the mission of his subordinates. The President is Commander in Chief of the U.S. armed forces. One highly regarded general has already resingnedly resigned his position at Secretary of Defense to be replaced by another one of Trump’s acting secretaries who has no military experience but is willing to play to the president’s whims on border security through the misappropriation of Defense Department funds..
The President of the United States can only be removed from office if his cabinet invokes the 25th Amendment to the Constitution of if the Senate removes him after impeachment by the House of Representatives Only once before in my recollection have we had a president threaten our constitution and that was president Nixon, who resigned from office when a few patriotic senators from his own party told him that his time was up and that he was about to be convicted by the Senate.
We watch and wait. Will the Congress act? Congress’ failure to live up to its responsibility is one reason that the military is so highly regarded by the public just as our politicians are so lowly regarded. If the Congress fails to act, I fear that our 200 year experiment in self-government may be coming to an end as our republic is replaced by an authoritarian cult leader like those we have seen in so many other countries of the world in the 20th century.
President Trump has expressed an affinity for and a friendship for a bevy of authoritarian “leaders” in the world–Putin of Russia, Erdogan of Turkey, Al-Sisi of Egypt, Duterte of the Phillipines, Bolsonaro of Brazil, and now Orban of Hungary. For those of us who have suffered through a report on the president’s tweets these past two years, it is clear that he would like to govern without consultation from our institutions of government and without having to answer for his actions to the Congress or to the American people
Joel Gormley
Alpine, TX
Dear editor,
Days and Numbers
According to USA Today May 8th there’s been “3 mass school shootings in 11 days.” We’re afflicted by an infectious, generational disease. How dare the “adults” do that to us?!?
The prospect of PS 81 destroyed never occurred as a possibility while sitting in the corridor, little fingers “protecting” our necks, during frequent 1950s air raid drills. Soviet bombers attacking American schools never appeared on CBS nightly news. It wasn’t our reality any more than being killed by a B-Western bad guy’s six-shooter. However, that October 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis day, a last high school lunch – ever – it was a concern!
My Boomer generation was groomed to fail today’s children. Blood flows red in American schools and we’re not doing anything constructive to prevent it!
Assault-style weapons are more consequential than those air raids. Today’s children know about the prospect of death from the media, reinforced by active shooter drills. How dare we allow an emotional, political illness become the “new normal” when there is an inoculation?
School children bear the brunt of our unwillingness to inoculate against gun violence, http://time.com/5168272/how-many-school-shootings/.
We’re counting down the days and the numbers of innocents until the next bloodletting. Accept the fact the carnage is ungodly and often preventable or at least reduced. Please understand that reasonable firearm regulations are constitutional, D.C. v. Heller, http://www.ontheissues.org/Court/Antonin_Scalia_Gun_Control.htm.
Rev. Barry Zavah
Alpine
