Letters: A Grinch in Happy Valley; Don’t celebrate yet
A Grinch in Happy Valley
The Grinch is alive and well in Happy Valley.
We went out early one recent morning to cut the perfect tree we had tagged in the fall. It was gone ... despite multiple and obvious streamers with name and phone number. We were just lucky to go on the last day of the season to get a tree. But it is really disappointing to realize someone or some family didn’t think twice. Some Christmas spirit.
Don’t celebrate yet
Donald Trump’s supporters might temper the celebration. A rude awakening is on the way.
A friend asked a Trump voter who served in the Marines and owns a small business how people respond to his MAGA hat post-election. He said he gets enthusiastic thumbs up and high-fives.
Fast forward to Inauguration Day and beyond. MAGA supporters may not be so happy when:
- Trump’s proposed tariffs increase the costs of everything from cars to clothes.
- Local restaurants close because cooks and servers have been deported.
- Grocery prices skyrocket due to tariffs and mass deportation of farm workers.
- Birth control pills are outlawed and condoms are the only available birth control option.
- Women you love/sisters/daughters/friends cannot terminate an unwanted pregnancy, even one resulting from rape.
- Health insurance costs rise due to changes to the Affordable Care Act.
- Climate change causes widespread flooding and home repairs are unattainable because Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DoGE) cut funding to FEMA, and the decimated construction industry can’t handle demand because construction workers were deported.
- School funding cuts mean grossly overcrowded classrooms.
- Polio, measles and other preventable diseases make a comeback because vaccines are no longer available.
- Family and friends die unnecessarily of cancer because the FDA lost its power to regulate the requisite treatment.
It’s not too late to save us all from those real dangers. Urge your Senators to do their jobs and reject the extreme appointments and actions that Trump promises to pursue.
A still-poignant message
In the midst of the current turmoil over Donald Trump’s potential but bizarre political appointees, I am constantly reminded of a concert I attended at Oberlin College in the mid-1960s. The performer was a then-popular female Native American folksinger named Buffy Sainte-Marie. Her concluding song was a powerful lyric highlighting the abuse of Native Americans, but it might equally have been applied to many many American groups and communities. It was titled, “My Country ‘Tis of Thy People You’re Dying.” Upon finishing the song, she did not wait for applause, and stalked off the stage with tears flowing down her cheeks. After about ten minutes, she returned to the stage and simply said, “I hope you’re f------ offended,” and again left the stage. That song as well as her courage has haunted me for more than half a century, and seems to apply even more today than it did then, encompassing a huge portion of America. I hope we now have the courage that Buffy manifested, and can finally make America an honorable place to live.