October 25, 2024 at 5:30 a.m.
Hope overcomes fear
To the Editor:
“The only thing we have to fear is fear itself,” said President Roosevelt, at a time then the economy was in extremely bad condition and people had good reason to fear for their future. The president spoke those words to encourage Americans, as he came up with programs that turned the economy around. Hope overcomes fear!
Now we have a man who wants to be president again, basing his whole campaign on making people afraid, repeating known falsehoods about elections, about crime, about immigrants, about the economy. Time after time, he uses fear to foment division between racial, ethnic, economic and geographical groups, attacking anyone he thinks is disloyal to him at a given time. With him, fear produces more fear! Hoping to alleviate the fears by electing him is preposterous.
President Roosevelt was successful in uniting the country and ending the great depression — Trump has no such vision. He saw an opportunity to be a leader in overcoming the COVID pandemic. He came close, for about two weeks, then couldn’t sustain it any longer. A leader has to be focused on others — Trump just can’t stand focusing on anyone but himself. Pay attention to those who worked closely with Trump as president, many of whom stuck with him all the way till January 6th, who now warn us how dangerous it would be to return him to power.
Notice that almost every harmful thing Trump accuses others of doing is stuff he does or intends to do. He accuses others of not loving America. How does he show love for our country? By spreading hate against large numbers of our citizens, praising dictators around the world including our country’s enemies, disparaging the military (especially those who’ve died), proposing to use the army against Americans who disagree with him, sending a mob to attack the capitol as part of undermining our elections.
After so much talk about Biden’s difficulty completing his sentences, what do we see at Trump rallies? A man having a hard time focusing on one thought for more than a few words! When either of these men does complete the sentence, Biden sounds like a statesman. Trump is only about hate, division, and … let’s face it … utter nonsense. Only three years younger than Biden, Trump doesn’t have the excuse of struggling with stammering all his life. He merely can’t think straight.
This is not what our country needs, especially when we have such a clear choice: Kamala Harris shows us what a calm, competent, confident, caring leader looks like. What a contrast with the man who thinks most of our country’s problems could be solved by a short period of extreme violence against whoever is perceived as enemies at the time. Is that the kind of country you want to live in? In such a world of fear, who knows who might be next!
Yes, we have a choice November 5: Let’s reject Trump’s dark, dismal, and divisive vision and choose Harris’ vision of hope that overcomes fear.
Gerald Anderson
Rhinelander
Comments:
You must login to comment.