Don’t let that miserable U.S. president get you down
Editor: Fire and fury. Folly and foolish. Bet a lot of the world’s folks would think this about U.S. President Donald Trump’s latest gibberish regarding and then defending his world-shaking words on North Korea.
An observation made on CBC News Network could have been right on in that “the power to end the world could be in one person.” As Aesop wrote, “Don’t go looking for trouble.”
Do you think Trump would hear, much less value, Aesop’s advice?
Well, not if you tally all that has been heard, seen, printed worldwide until this very moment via radio, TV, newspapers, Facebook and Google. All so goofy.
For example, on Aug. 11, for a fourth straight day, the president ratcheted up the rhetorical standoff with North Korea, by declaring the U.S. was “locked and loaded” for swift and forceful retaliation.
He brushed away calls for caution from world leaders.
As The Canadian Press reported. “While the escalating rhetoric may be mere sabre-rattling, psychologists say feeling fearful or anxious about the threat of a nuclear holocaust or any life-altering catastrophe is perfectly normal.”
Still, I wonder who’s right? Who’s wrong? Are we world citizens becoming Trumpophobic?
Great, that we have numerous good, compassionate actions by individuals and groups everywhere to relieve that uncertainty.
Yet, the mind of Trump worries many. First, he fails to name and denounce the hate groups involved in the deadly, race-fuelled weekend clashes of Aug. 13-14 in Charlottesville, Va., then criticized and pressured by fellow Republicans and Democrats, two days later, he reads a prepared statement.
“Racism is evil,” he declared, naming the groups and calling their racism “repugnant to everything we hold dear … those who spread violence in the name of bigotry strike at the very core of America.”
So, why, oh why, didn’t Trump name then in his first comments?
Revealing are an editorial cartoon showing a ghost holding a “white power” sign, and a reader’s letter declaring the violent confrontation in Charlottesville shows the U.S. to be a “seething pressure cooker.”
Both Republicans and Democrats denounced Trump for being too slow in condemning the Charlottesville violence and the white supremacists there, yet, in a positive contrast, he immediately condemned the violence Aug. 16, in Barcelona, Spain, where 13 people.
As a columnist headlined, “racist Trump pontificates.”
Another writer, a longtime New York-based gent well versed in Trump’s many years in that city, says he’s not surprised by Donny’s behaviour, that New Yorkers “got his number a long time ago.”
Still, let’s not ignore Trump’s or any other elected officials’ good deeds. There appear to be many more, good stories of everyday good folk out there. For example, a young man’s Atlantic-to-Pacific walk to raise funds for mental health, also the United Way publicly rallying for B.C. wildlife recovery.
Let’s not forget such selfless deeds as a guy donating one of Shaw Cable’s Outstanding Canadian grant of $1,500 to the Kelowna General Hospital’s children’s ward. Nor the staff of a local landscaping firm donating $118,000 in cash and inkind work to local organizations.
Just a minute smidgeon of all the terrific contributions by individuals and organizations here.
Reflective in just an impromptu way was the young woman who smilingly greeted me as I was about to leave my retirement community area for a short morning walk to Orchard Park mall on Monday.
There, I was not interested nor intending to view the solar eclipse. She was looking upward that morn with a viewing mechanism in her hands. That dear, oh-so-thoughtful lady politely asked me to look into her viewfinder and upward.
And there it was — a partial eclipse of the sun enchanting Wally’s eyes. Wow, so wondrous. I thanked that lady magnanimously. And unexpected, incredible lifetime moment.
And there I stood mesmerized, reflecting upon the notion that each and all of us are so minute in the universal scheme of things. Yes.
Wally Dennison, Kelowna