Destroying from within
During the 1960s, Russian President Nikita Kruschev said to the United States, “We will destroy you from within!” It has already started when 54% of Electoral College voters chose to elect an unfit, arrogant narcissist who only cares about himself and money.
President Donald Trump said, “I alone can fix it” and claimed Mexico will pay for the wall. Were still waiting for that one.
He never did release his taxes, like other presidents have done. His constant lies are shameful.
He mocked a disabled reporter and called dead soldiers “suckers and losers,” which should appall any service member. That should have been the end of him.
Infrastructure was not done by Trump. President Joe Biden’s bipartisanship made that happen by working together, as well as many other good projects.
Trump wants to dismantle the U.S. Department of Education, which has positive programs to help kids in poverty in underserved states.
Most public school teachers earn just above poverty level and must take a second job to make ends meet. I am one of them.
His Cabinet picks are atrocious and incompetent. At least there was enough outrage that Matt Gaetz was eliminated as attorney general. His picks are “yes” men with blind loyalty to Trump – not the Constitution of our country.
Russian President Vladimir Putin will continue to influence Trump, weaken NATO and promote chaos until Kruschev’s statement comes true.
We need to have better leaders with character, integrity, honesty, empathy and a desire to care for our citizens. Trump has none of these characteristics.
This is what you voted for if you support him.
As these four years unfold, I hope our institutions, military and country do well. I sincerely hope I am wrong about my negative outlook and have to eat crow.
We shall see.
Mike Lalone, Murphy
Husband got excellent care
My husband, Bill Huffines, spent the last three months of his life in Hayesville House for Memory Care in Hayesville.
I could not express how much gratitude I feel for the care he received. He was cared for with dignity and love.
All the staff were wonderful caring people and his care was excellent. I want to thank each and every one there for his care.
May God bless all of you.
Nancy Huffines, Marble
Love of power coming to end
The decline of Rome hastened the factors making for economic decline. Small farmers and middle classes virtually disappeared or rather were absorbed into immense estates as semi-slaves.
The purchasing power represented by these small farmers disappeared and helped to ruin the city artisans who produced manufactured goods for sale to the small farmers and others; besides, an important source of tax revenue also disappeared.
Then the state became the primary producer of goods, a factor which destroyed the initiative of Rome with semi-slaves and a higher cost of living. What remained was more taxes on everything for a corrupt political and business behavior, and the army became a prime political force.
This had a tremendous impact upon the small farmers and middle classes, who had become the backbone of the Empire. They were made responsible for the collection of taxes in the city, town, etc., having its own incorporated government. Whatever, they did not raise of the quota assigned them, they paid more out of their own pockets. The skilled craftsman had been ruined with the decline of small farmers, and middle classes followed the skilled craftsman into ruin.
Today, the United States
and other are using a more detailed blueprint for the new world organization (the United Nations). They have become wealthy through wars, lies, fear and the apostate, idolatrous “pagan” system centered at Rome (Vatican City); and in Washington, D.C.
However, at the end of the tribulation period, there will be no more sea. The merchants will find nothing to buy or sell. In one hour: The world’s “pagan” economic system will collapse. God’s wrath is here, not climate change. The rest of the kings and armies will be killed by the Word of Christ, and will be eaten by the birds (Revelation 19:17-18). The system is corrupt.
Cotton Allen, Brasstown
Keep funding for research
I have been perplexed by the administration’s action regarding stopping funding for cancer research. How does this make America great?
Thousands of Americans are diagnosed with cancer every year, and thousands die from it every year. Strides have been made in many areas due to the research to determine which treatments or medications work best, but the battle has not been won.
This is personal. I was diagnosed with kidney cancer more than three years ago. Surgery held it off for a couple of years, but it returned and required immunotherapy, and then chemotherapy.
I volunteered for a clinical trial, which was studying the effectiveness of using two medications instead of one. Unfortunately, my body did not react well and I had to stop, but that doesn’t mean it wasn’t effective.
That treatment, as harsh as it was, has given me time to see a new granddaughter born last spring, time to prepare my family for carrying on without me, good quality time with my husband, daughters and friends. I am so grateful to have had this time with them and to wrap up my little bit of business in this world.
Without funding, there would be no research for kidney cancer treatments. It is one of the less-common cancers, especially among women. If medical research is paid for only by drug companies, they will maximize their profit margin by only funding research into the most-common cancers, such as lung and breast cancer. Less-common cancer research will have no chance of being funded.
You may think this doesn’t affect you, but it probably will. You or someone you know will get cancer and need the best treatment available, but without funding for research no one will know how to treat it. New treatment medications cannot be developed and innovations stop.
Please let your representatives know this new policy will set back cancer treatments for hundreds of thousands in this country, and that is not the direction that will improve lives.
Susan Landis, Murphy
The bear necessities
Since the dawn of time, humankind has been forming clans and tribes for mutual survival.
In the days of the hunter-gatherer, males hunted and protected the group as warriors. Females, in general, were food preparers, made clothes and had babies.
It was a simple, albeit necessary community structure. Everything was done for the good of the group. Everyone had a role. Anyone not willing to contribute was driven out.
Diversity in those days meant a diverse gene pool. Anyone that has studied biology or animal husbandry knows that good breeding creates hybrid vigor and the herd benefits by becoming stronger.
Today, diversity, equity and inclusion is weakening rather than strengthening our social fabric, whether we are discussing either brawn or brain.
During my youth in the 1950s and ‘60s, in true tribal fashion, a group of friends and relatives would gather on occasion for a feast. The men provided the meat, which they had hunted or raised and processed. The women, generally, did the cooking. It was very traditional, except the women were not expected to chew the hides for shoes.
This brings me to the Berenstain Bears, a series of children’s books and television shows first published in 1962 by Jan & Stan Berenstain. At first glance the stories are innocuous, but under scrutiny a subversive theme emerges.
Mama bear is excessively matriarchal and constantly undermines papa bear. She rules the roost. Papa bear is hen-pecked, and the entire family marches to the orders of mama bear.
I recall one episode when mama bear decided everyone had watched enough TV, and she ordered the kids and papa bear outside. Papa bear objected, but was overridden by the domineering mama bear. If your wife arbitrarily turns off your TV or tunes to a different channel during a sports event, she could be suffering from Bearenstainitis.
When one sees the news clips of women who are refusing to have sex with their husbands because of the election, one might incorrectly identify it as Trump Derangement Syndrome. If there were a current bears episode about this situation, I would name it Abbearenstaining for Democracy, realizing, of course, not copulating does have the added benefit of fewer abortions.
I expect I will be the first to diagnose Bearenstainitis. There are cures but a potential side effect is incarceration.
There is a plethora of references in the Bible about wives submitting to their husbands. I suspect such admonitions are inconsequential. More useful guidance is available from “101 Ways to Serve your Husband” at imom.com.
My sons had a steady diet of “the bears” and had to be deprogrammed with large doses of toxic masculinity. Today, they are almost as normal as I am.
Don Hobert, Hayesville