Shame on us

Most of us have added to the ingredients of a cauldron of simmering political, racial and social stew over the past 10 years. A stew mostly overlooked and ignored until it boiled over on Jan. 6, that manifested over the past four years of the Trump administration. That administration’s agenda led to an extreme racial divide. 

Today we’re experiencing radical attacks on our social freedoms, law enforcement and hundreds of years of history; educational opportunity and young thoughts suppressed; polite social, political and ethical decorum gone. Congress is so dysfunctional that it may as well not exist. Our electoral process is an embarrassment and a laughing stock around the world — not overlooked by our enemies — enemies waiting to insert their control over socialist nations. We could be headed there if we don’t put the brakes on quickly. 

Let me be clear: I don’t like the now twice impeached former President Trump and I never have. He can be arrogant and bellicose. What I do like are his many positive accomplishments. He took on the “get nothing done” political establishment and made life better for U.S. citizens and important allies despite four years of constant harassment and abuse perpetrated by liberals and the politically biased mainstream and social media that constantly undermined him and his supporters. 

And it continues. This country will become more severely divided unless our new president, Joseph Biden, can step up, control his Democratic party and calm this nation. Trump’s selfish and reckless rhetoric on Jan. 6 cannot be condoned. But neither can the media’s attacks and politically biased censorship  be ignored. 

Let’s now give President Biden a chance to lead, which was never given to Trump. I believe that Trump, to his credit, organized and delivered the prompt protection of all states from COVID-19. At the state level, we ran into roadblocks from incompetent governors and mayors who failed to organize respond to the pandemic and shamefully blamed others for their lack of leadership. 

Once again, Florida shines as a role model. That state’s governor hired additional healthcare workers and opened unused venues and mobilized drive-in testing and vaccination sites. New York, to the contrary, again failed miserably. It’s been total dysfunction under Governor Andrew Cuomo. He’s great as a bloviator but short on substance, with the distinction of being the only governor in this nation directly responsible for the deaths of thousands of senior citizens due to his 40-something day mandate to direct virus infected seniors into assisted living facilities and nursing homes at the height of the pandemic. 

Now we must see if Biden has the fortitude and grit to guide this nation out of its current health and economic crisis; it depends entirely upon him. 

I’d normally sign off with a “God bless you,” to my readers, but I’m too disgusted with the present state of the world and, to be frank, not in the mood. Let me instead say, “God, please look over the survival of this still great but troubled nation.” Good bye for now.

Millerton resident Larry Conklin is a Vietnam War veteran and member of both the American Legion Post 178 in Millerton, N.Y., and the Couch-Pipa VFW Post 6851 in North Canaan, Conn.