Fly your own flag
This morning PBS news — which, along with the BDN, is my only news source, because I do not do tweets, YouTube videos or other fake news sources — gave me an idea. It seems as though the president-elect may be being steered by his handlers to distract everyone from real issues, and the ploy is to push what they think are liberal “hot buttons,” such as revoking citizenship for flag-burning.
Don’t take the bait! Who gives a hoot about flag-burning when civil rights, health insurance and public education are at stake?
So, here’s my idea. Because our stars and stripes are being devalued by elected Republicans and their team of retronaughts, let every liberal and decent human being make her or his own private U.S. flag. Design them to be inspirational or excoriating. Be creative. Instead of the humiliated red, white and blue, which no longer stands for free speech, inalienable rights, reproductive rights, or humanitarian rights fly these custom-designed U.S. flags proudly. Call it “New Glory.”
Carol Muth
Bar Harbor
Beware corruption in White House
Being a U.S. history buff, I’ve spent time lately scanning several examples from our last 100 years of the corruption and abuses of federal laws by officials in presidential administrations. A few are well-known. Remember Spiro Agnew, an ex-vice president, who resigned over charges of tax evasion and bribery? How about Watergate during the Nixon administration, the Teapot Dome scandal during the Harding administration and dozens of lesser known scandals?
I bring this up because hindsight suggests many possible reasons behind blatant violations: Greed backed by ignorance of rules seems one cause and effect. My wish is for today’s press to do far more educating themselves and the public about public officials’ words and actions. To me, we are seeing worrisome signs that the public may be too easily duped. I hope not.
Patricia Felton
Belfast
Get beyond left, right politics
There is an alternative view to the politics of the left and right. This sort of view doesn’t get much attention, but you can find it in books, such as “ Saving Capitalism for the Many Not the Few” by Robert B. Reich and “ Griftopia” by Matt Taibbi.
This view says basically that although divide and conquer may not be the intent, it is the effect. As long as the left and the right continue endless arguments about normal hot-button issues, then we will not come together to fix the huge underlying problem highlighted by the results of the election. Namely, the inequality built into our political and financial system over the last 40 or 50 years by the corrosive influence of Big Money on the legislative process. Arguing about our normal issues does not get us any closer to reversing the legislative disenfranchisement of the working and middle classes from the American dream.
Two rich men from New York, one Republican and one Democrat, worked to remove the influence of Big Money on our legislative process in decades apart. Teddy Roosevelt and Franklin Delano Roosevelt worked to get a better life for ordinary people. Unfortunately, our current rich man from New York does not seem to be cut from the same kind of cloth.
If we can’t stop arguing about steering the ship of state to the left or right and take the time to fix the big hole in the hull, there may be nothing left to steer.
John Feuille
Holden