I am now 78 years old and I have never experienced the amount of anxiety that I have currently. On Independence Day, I wrote a letter to the Eau Claire Leader-Telegram which was published on July 14. Several days later I received a letter in which the writer said I had “attacked him personally” and that he is “very angry”.
Here is what I wrote:
July 4, 2019, was one of the more depressing days of my life. I saw no reason to celebrate America’s Independence with all that has transpired since the 2016 elections. I remained at home, refusing to watch the self-aggrandizement of a man who puts himself above the rule of law.
As a sophomore in high school, Mr. Robert Melrose, my civics teacher, had a placard above the blackboard that read: “If America is to fall, she will fall from within.” I think about those words daily.
With a perpetual liar as president, it is frightening that 43% of voting Americans ascribe to his continual bowing and scraping to the likes of Kim Jong-Un, Vladimir Putin, and China’s Xi Jinping. It is testament to a failure in education of our present generation and to the greed of consumerism that runs rampant. There is a school of thought that all the idiotic statements Trump spoke in his speech were written for him purposely so that piece by seemingly unimportant piece, it adds up: Ignorant, misinformed people will vote for Donald Trump in 2020; people who don’t care about knowing basic facts will vote for Donald Trump in 2020; and finally, people who think that on some deep, foundational level, facts that the “elites” try to force on them don’t matter, what they feel in their gut is more important, will vote for Donald Trump.
I question the morality of any American who thinks what is transpiring on our Southern border is in any way acceptable. If there was any justice, Trump, his immediate family, and all the immediate families of the complicit Senate would be sent to those 20 X 20 wired concentration camp cages and given the same amenities as the refugees they would replace: no air conditioning, no place to sit much less lie down to rest, no fresh clothing, toilet water for drinking. Having served the amount of time all refugees have been forced to serve, the entire group should be deported to Guatemala, and given housing with heroin dealers as neighbors. As our beloved “Tweeter-in-Chief” stated recently: “problem solved”.
Lawrence Heagle
Fall Creek, WI
*****
However, yesterday, in light of the terrible events in El Paso, Texas, I wrote to two elementary school teachers in the two schools affected and I am going to submit the following to Voice of the People:
Dearest Students of Hillside Elementary:
I am writing this letter on behalf of myself and my wife, Kim, who was a Kindergarten teacher for 32 years and I also taught for over 10 years as a middle school teacher. We both want you all to know that our hearts are as broken as yours right now and that we love each of you with all our heart. We refuse to believe that America is an evil place even though the forces of evil seem to be out of control presently.
In the past 8 or so years, we could feel that our so-called leadership had taken to what we believe is a concept that Vladimir Putin has spread throughout this once great country of ours: “divide and conquer”. We witnessed it here in Wisconsin with the election of Scott Walker who was even overheard as saying that “divide and conquer” is how he would take control. But all of you and all of us will not be divided and conquered. We will instead join together as brothers and sisters and through love of one another we shall once again celebrate the one principle of strength that we hold: Our diversity. Our motto, as the original founders of the United States of America so stated in Latin: E Pluribus Unum: “Out of many, One”.
Please know that there are millions of Americans, all of different races, colors, creeds, that still believe that love is stronger than hate and we shall overcome the terrible tragedy and suffering that you have been forced to bear by lifting our voices as one at the ballot boxes in the next election. With deep sadness and respect,