America a great nation
We have a national bird, the American bald eagle. We have a national flag, the Stars and Stripes. We have a national capital, Washington D.C. We have in D.C. many national monuments distributed on the National Mall. We are, whether you like it or not, the best nation on the face of this planet.
We are also a wealthy nation. A place where citizens using their own initiative can excel at almost anything. Granted there are a lot of poor people, and there always will be. There are also a large number of good, caring and not necessarily wealthy people, who gather together to raise money for every disease, every event, natural or manmade, that affects others in a negative way. We are a generous nation full of generous people.
We saved most of Europe from the evils of the Third Reich. All so the leaders of France, Germany and Italy, to name a few, can criticize us with impunity. We defended most of the world against the evils of the former USSR at great cost.
Suffice to say, we are a great nation. I am proud to call myself an American. A lack of nationalism is causing a lot of the evils we see around the world. All globalists should remember and consider the adage that “absolute power corrupts absolutely.” Who would them put in charge of their preconceived, socially just world?
Leo Mazerall
Stockton Springs
Trump snubbed veterans
When I got the BDN on Veterans’ Day, I was struck by the front-page picture of President Donald Trump at the Suresnes American Cemetery near Paris. He had just snubbed the commemoration on Saturday of the 100th anniversary of the end of World War I, where all major European leaders gathered to honor Veterans of that conflict. Trump claimed he did not attend because of a bad flying weather forecast.
What? He can’t drive 50 miles to attend the ceremony? In a chauffeured limo? Trump and Vladimir Putin were conspicuous by their absences.
TV images of the European leaders marching in procession and all holding umbrellas to shield them from the obviously heavy winds and rain speak volumes. After taking heavy worldwide criticism over the weekend for not attending, Trump attends a Sunday ceremony at the American cemetery.
Now take a closer look at the BDN picture. Look at the umbrella. It looks dry but pictures can be deceiving. And it did rain during Trump’s speech at the ceremony. It still begs the question: What’s wrong with this picture?
All veterans and Americans should be outraged that Trump skipped the real commemoration, and those who are Trump supporters owe their fellow veterans an apology. Pictures truly are worth a thousand words. I wonder how much it cost us to fly Trump out there so he could stay in his hotel room and watch TV rather than attend the commemoration. Or maybe Trump and Putin had more pressing business?
Paul Cyr
Madawaska
The man who started WW I
The excellent Nov. 11 article on the Armistice Day observances in Paris ended by alluding to the assassination of the Austro-Hungarian Archduke Franz Ferdinand at Sarajevo in June 1914, which triggered the chain of events that resulted in the First World War. His assassin was, as stated, Gavrilo Princip, a 19-year-old Serbian whose objective was to force the breakup of the Habsburg empire of which the archduke was heir apparent and to free the Serbs, Bosnians and Croats to form a new nation, Yugoslavia.
By the terms of the Treaty of Versailles, which formally ended the war, Princip’s objective was achieved — Yugoslavia was created. Because he was too young, Princip had been sentenced to life in prison instead of being executed. Ironically, he could not bask in the glory of his achieved objective for he had died of pneumonia in prison on April 28, 1918, 6½ months before the armistice occurred.
John F. Battick
Dover-Foxcroft