Stop the Cowardly Republican death threats!

Echo!  St. Louis Post-Dispatch EDITORIAL BOARD published in the Hartford Courant. 

Republicans must stop defending #TheFormerGuy, the ex-president who defends death threats.

In a newly released interview, Donald Trump was asked about the Jan. 6th, Capitol rioters who threatened to kill Vice President Mike Pence. Did Trump respond as any responsible adult would, and condemn that threat? Of course not. Repeating his delusional claim that Pence could have overturned the election, Trump defended the rioters’ fury at his vice president, calling it “common sense.”

With the (horrible!) possibility of another Trump presidential run still in play, every Republican officeholder who hasn’t yet disavowed him — which is most of them — should be asked to defend this latest, most grotesque evidence of his unfitness. If they can’t (and they can’t), then why are they still enabling him?

Throughout his presidency, Trump refused to condemn dangerous acts against America, when committed by people he viewed as being personally on his side. 

In Helsinki, Finland, he shocked the world by taking Vladimir Putin’s word over American intelligence regarding Russian election meddling. After the deadly violence in Charlottesville, Virginia, Trump declared there were “very fine people” on both sides — even though one side included white supremacists.

When asked during a debate last year to disavow support from the racist Proud Boys, Trump instead told them to “stand back and stand by.” Even as the violence raged on Jan. 6, Trump’s video message to the rioters included, “We love you."

And now Trump cannot muster, even the mildest rebuke, for the insurrectionist thugs who prowled the Capitol in his honor, chanting, “Hang Mike Pence!”

In the newly released audio of the recent interview, Jonathan Karl of ABC News aptly notes that the chants were “terrible.” Trump responds: “Well, the people were very angry” at Pence for failing to invalidate the election (something which, in fact, Pence had no power to do).

“It’s common sense, Jon. … How can you — if you know a vote is fraudulent, right? — how can you pass on a fraudulent vote to Congress? How can you do that?” Trump added.

Not, "How can you threaten the life of the vice president?" But rather: "How could Pence not have overturned the election for me?"*

To the inevitable chorus asking why we’re still focusing on a former president’s obvious psychosis: because poll after poll shows Trump is still the front-runner for the 2024 GOP presidential nomination. He has never garnered majority national support — not in any reputable poll and not in either of his presidential elections — but as 2016 demonstrated, that doesn’t mean he couldn’t be seated again as president under America’s electoral process.

A president who slanders and undermines that process, incites an attempt to violently overthrow an election, and now suggests that death threats against his own vice president were valid has no business being anywhere near power. Nor does any other politician too cowardly to look into the cameras and say that.

*In my opinion, although former Vice President Mike Pence might never publicly admit it, he recognized that #TheFormerGuy is certifiably crazy. As difficult as it was for him to admit it, he knew, that American could not endure another Trumpziism term. 

Poet Prophesy - Robert Frost echo opinion from Connecticut

Robert Frost was a magnificent poet but he may also have been a prophet.

Opinion letter about the evil Trumpzi border wall publsihed in The Hartford Courant

Poet Robert Frost (1874-1963)

The poet Robert Frost writes in “Mending Wall”: “Something there is that doesn’t love a wall.” Later in the poem, he warns, “Before I built a wall I’d ask to know / What I was walling in or walling out, / And to whom I was like to give offense.”

Published in 1914, way before the notorious Berlin Wall or Maginot Line were even dreamed about, this poem reminds us to consider carefully what or whom we are excluding. 

In the case of our southern border, we would keep out and keep in migrating species, as well as human migrants desperately seeking asylum from oppression and possible death.

Many label such human migrants as “illegals” whereas they are neither legal nor illegal until they do or do not fill certain requirements. Such walls as the ones the president proposes are so un-American in spirit I can only think of them as diabolical.

I believe Donald Trump is trying to distract the gullible public with the implied threat of criminals at our borders to awaken the latent xenophobia that lies deep in the American psyche. He would like us to forget about the ongoing Mueller investigation that is looking into his and others’ involvement with Russia in derailing the 2016 elections.

Ruth G. Crutchley, Granby

Judicial temperament is the echo subject in multiple opinions

Hartford Courant letters - serial skepticism voiced about the Brett Kavanaugh judicial temperament from Higganum, Coventry and Woodstock in Connecticut :

#1 Not Justice Material

I found Dr. Christine Blasey Ford's testimony powerful, moving, and credible. Apparently much of the country did as well, including many Republicans and even President Donald Trump, who called her "compelling ... and she looked like a very fine woman".

But regardless of Dr. Ford's veracity, Judge Kavanaugh's vengeful rant following her time showed him to lack the calm, apolitical, impartial, fair temperament to be a traffic court judge, let alone a Supreme Court Justice.

His insults of Senators and his claim that this judiciary hearing was a last-minute smear campaign by Democrats and "left-wing opposition groups" fueled by anger at President Trump and revenge for the Clintons was unhinged.

Can anyone believe that a Justice Kavanaugh would be an unbiased arbiter when presented with a case brought by a Democrat? This man should not be on the Supreme Court.

Scott MacDonald, Higganum

#2 Impartiality Required

The spectacle of the Judge Brett Kavanaugh's testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee has certainly made for excellent daytime television drama.

However, Judge Kavanaugh's last appearance before the committee -- when he raged against his accuser and senators as well -- revealed one character flaw that truly casts doubt upon his suitability for the highest court in the nation.

The concept of impartiality is essential to factual findings based only on the evidence presented before the court, and the loss of this sort of impartiality is obviously improper.

During his testimony, Judge Kavanaugh opted for the Trumpian approach by blaming the Democrats for his perceived pillorying and suggesting "revenge on behalf of the Clintons." Whether of not this indignation was deserved or imagined, it revealed that his impartiality could be significantly affected.

That degree of anger exhibited during the Senate committee hearing should cause all to doubt if Judge Kavanaugh's temperament is suitable for the Supreme Court.

Gale Morganroth, Coventry

#3 Unfit to Judge

Regardless of whether the sexual abuse allegations against Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh prove true or false, Mr. Kavanaugh displayed a lack of emotional temperance during the Senate Judiciary Committee hearings that shows he is unfit to make judgments in the highest decision-making body in our beloved country.

Karen Ryker, Woodstock

Echo from Connecticut ~ Ode to true American patriots

Dear Donald Trump (and all Americans): an opinion published in the Hartford Courant by Frank Harris III:

Crispus Attucks*, here. Having followed the Trump presidency, I am acutely aware that history is not your strong suit; so, to save you time from asking, or daresay, the trouble of consulting a book on just exactly who the heck I am — I was the first to die for America’s independence.

I gave my life for this country, though at the time I was not considered a citizen.I gave my life for this country, though at the time I was not considered a citizen. How so? I was a black man. In fact, a slave who used his feet to protest slavery by running away to freedom. I was a free man when I protested the tyranny of the British on that fateful morning in March 1770. That day when the Redcoats opened fire. That day when I and four others died in what became known as the Boston Massacre.

I was a true patriot, Mr. President. As such, I think I am uniquely qualified to speak on false patriots, which brings me to you.

I saw you sink to your knees in Helsinki, Mr. President.

It was quite a sight seeing you do the Helsinki Sink — kowtowing to a foreign dictator, blaming your own nation and indeed putting another nation’s interests before your own.

I saw you sink to your knees in Helsinki, Mr. President. I saw you show more loyalty to Russia than America. Then a few days later you tweeted that NFL players who protest racial injustice during the national anthem should be severely punished.

You again questioned the patriotism of these predominantly black players and others who protest racial injustice.

It is sheer gall, Mr. President, that you, who sank to both knees in Helsinki to Vladimir Putin, should dictate patriotism to anyone in America.

It seems to me, Mr. President, you have no moral or ethical authority to question anyone about patriotism. This is particularly true of my black descendants who choose to protest racial injustice during the playing of the national anthem.

How can a free nation compel its free citizens to stand in obedience under the flag of patriotism? Is it not the tyranny that I fought against? The tyranny I sacrificed my life to oppose?

Mr. President, I saw you sink to your knees in Helsinki.

I saw you operate in secrecy from your own staff. And before this, I saw how you avoided military duty during the Vietnam war. I saw you denigrate the war hero John McCain. I saw you disrespect Gold Star parents Ghazala and Khizr Khan. Now you wish to remove the security clearances from those in government who criticize you.

And you question others’ patriotism for exercising their constitutional right to protest?

I gave my life for this country and the irony of this has not been lost on me in the years since. I placed myself on the front line in the fight for America’s freedom in a country where the majority of my fellow brethren of African descent were themselves not free.

Over the years, indeed, over the centuries of this country we call America, it has been a recurring theme in American history: black people putting their lives on the line for their country for rights they did not completely have only to have their sacrifices quickly forgotten or denigrated.

It takes a heck of a lot of faith to put forth a supreme effort in support of one’s country in the face of being treated as less than equal.

Mr. President, there are many ironies in life. One of them was that a black man was the first to die for America’s independence at a time when most blacks did not have their own freedom.

Another great irony are those false patriot supporters of yours who question the patriotism of NFL players taking a knee in protest during the anthem, while still supporting your unpatriotic behavior when it comes to Putin and Russia.

To my fellow Americans: I was a true patriot. But I am dead. It is time that living true patriots stand and remove the false patriot and would-be-dictator known as Donald Trump.

Stand so that he does not sink America the way he sank to his knees in Helsinki.

Frank Harris III of Hamden is a professor of journalism at Southern Connecticut State University in New Haven. His email address is frankharristhree@gmail.com. Follow him on Twitter at @fh3franktalk.

*Crispus Attucks ~ An American of African and Native American descent, widely regarded as the first person killed in the Boston massacre and thus the first American killed in the American Revolution.

Martin Luther King echo - "Beyond the Dream"

Reminder about Dr. Martin Luther King's dream for social equality in "Beyond the Dream" ~ an echo letter to the editor, published in the Hartford Courant, in Connecticut.

Dr. Martin Luther King's birthday is Jan. 15. 

Dr. Martin Luther King had a dream beyond "I Had a Dream"

We will hear much about his famous speech, "I Have a Dream." 

Martin Luther King, indeed, did have a dream, but he also had much more. He had a dream for justice, equality and peace. 

Dr. King articulated that program in his final book, before he was assassinated. The title of the text is "Where Do We Go From Here: Chaos or Community*."

In the book, Dr. King described a national policy of guaranteed income for all that eliminated poverty. This dream formed one of the central messages of Dr. King's book.

"I am now convinced that the simplest approach will prove to be the most effective -- the solution to poverty is to abolish it directly by a now widely discussed measure: the guaranteed income," he wrote. "The program would benefit all the poor, including the two-thirds of them who are white."

He also addressed the issues of racism, speaks eloquently against war and violence, discusses political power and challenges all people of goodwill to become involved to bring his dream in to reality. This book is well worth a read. 

It is as if Dr. King is speaking to us today.

(MaineWriter ~ we wish!)

Thomas P. Connolly, West Hartford CT; a letter published in the Hartford Connecticut "Hartford Courant" newspaper"

*(Wikipedia) ~ One of the central themes of the book's messages is that of hope. King reflects upon the Civil Rights Movement. 

Dr. King discusses the question of what African-Americans should do with their new freedoms found in laws such as the Voting Rights Act of 1965. He concludes that all Americans must unite in order to fight poverty and create an equality of opportunity. 

King emphasized that he advocates for a united social movement that would act within both the Republican and Democratic parties.