Letters: Kudos to airport executive director; Trump unleashed hate
Kudos to airport executive director
Prior to a recent departure from the State College airport, TSA discovered that I had a wine bottle opener, with a short knife for foil removal, in my dopp kit. It had been left there from a recent car travel trip, and I forgot about it — my mistake.
Much to my pleasant surprise, the TSA agent escorted me, with the opener, to the checked baggage screening area where I was given a stamped, padded envelope that I could address to my home address and drop in the U.S. Mail box outside the airport door. I was told that the envelope had been provided by the executive director of the airport, Jim Meyer. This is a very generous benefit for absent-minded travelers, courtesy of our customer-facing director. Thank you!
Trump unleashed hate
My wife and I just attended the first day of the trial for the Tree of Life murderer, which was the worst anti-Semitic attack in United States history.
Attacks against Jews have increased by 75% since Donald Trump became president. There have always been those who hate Jews, often without ever knowing a Jew in person. Donald Trump gave oxygen to those who once stayed in the shadows.
He proclaimed after the Neo-Nazis marched in Charlottesville, “There are good people on both sides.” He has allied himself with hate groups like the Oath Keepers. He has dined with Kanye West and Nick Fuentes, who are both vicious haters of Jews.
It’s doubtful that Donald Trump is himself a hater of Jews, but he’s shown a pattern of allying himself with anyone, no matter how morally corrupt, to gain political favor. He unleashed the hateful demons in our society. Donald Trump didn’t pull the trigger at the Tree of Life but he helped load the gun.
It’s time for the Republican Party to rid itself of the fear and hate that has dominated its dialogue and go back to the time when Republicans offered reasonable policy alternatives to the Democrats.
Rally around Biden
Fragging, a term from the Vietnam War, is an assault on a soldier, usually a superior, by a fellow soldier. In politics, fragging is the deliberate assault on a leader from one’s own party. That’s what some Democrats are doing to President Biden.
I wish Biden were younger — or that we had an alternative with the gravitas and experience to step into Biden’s shoes. I wish MAGA obstruction hadn’t prevented President Biden from achieving more, but wishing is as impotent as MAGA “thoughts and prayers” after a mass shooting.
Against all odds, Biden has accomplished a great deal (CHIPS Act, Inflation Reduction, lowering prescription drug prices, strengthening NATO and coalescing international support for Ukraine). Biden realized the first bipartisan gun legislation in decades. Democrats who want him to push a more progressive agenda don’t accept that we’re deeply divided and in a pitch battle for the heart and soul of American democracy.
We need a president who speaks to the concerns of independents — and moderates of both parties; they’ll ultimately decide the 2024 election.
There’s crucial work to be done on voting rights, reproductive rights, social and economic justice, the environment and gun control. If Biden loses we’ll go back to Trump-era divisiveness, false narratives, baseless conspiracy theories, chaos and disrespect for democracy. And Trump gives Ukraine to Putin.
Biden says “don’t compare me to the almighty; compare me to the alternative.” Democrats, independents and Republicans, tired of the Trump circus, must consider the alternative — and rally around Biden.