Dear President Trump,

I know you are accustomed to defining reality as you think it should be.  Doing so is called fantasy.  The problem with that, of course, is you miss vital information in reality as it is.  There are a few things I do not think you understand in the cocoon you have built.

First, if the election were today you would lose.  By a landslide.  That’s right.  There has never been a President with approval ratings as low as yours.  The American people do not like what you are doing and how you are doing it.  As long as you surround yourself with family, friends and supporters and do not really listen to the critics you are not likely to get this important piece of reality.

Second, you are not CEO of USA.  You are not the boss of the government.  I know you are used to being the boss, are used to having all your underlings hanging on your every word, seeking to do your will, agreeing with you all the time, fawning and respectful.  That may happen in a corporation where you can announce in reality show fashion, “You’re fired!”  That does not work in our government.  You cannot fire the legislative branch.  You cannot fire the judicial branch.  You are to be a leader, not a CEO, not a bully, not a boss.  Leading is much more difficult than being the boss as it requires you to listen.  Your tweets are an indicator that you think we are all hanging on your next pronouncement of how good you are and how bad someone else is.  That’s just not true.  We read your tweets because we are amazed at the extent you simply just do not get it.

Finally, you are a public servant as is every elected official.  You are to serve the public, the entire public, not just your rich cronies and friends.  You are to serve citizens regardless of their ethnicity, race, sexual preference or identify and religious beliefs.  You do not get to say I will serve these Americans because I like them but I will not serve these Americans because I don’t like them.  You will be judged on how well you served the nation, not yourself.  You have spent a lot of time in this first year serving yourself, playing golf, appointing friends and family who are not qualified for anything other than blindly supporting you, tweeting whatever enters your mind, dishing out group and individual critiques.  None of that serves the county.  It serves you.  Please stop.

Putting Russia, money laundering, perjury and lying aside, yours will be remembered as the greatest failure of any President this nation has ever seen.  You will be remembered that way not by your friends and supporters because they are a minority.  You will be remembered that way by the vast majority of us who still cannot believe you simply do not get it.  The apprenticeship for elected leadership is public service, not self-service and public pontification.  You will be fired one way or another. 

How to Change the World

We are in a dismal state of affairs as a nation and as a planet.  In so many ways we have discovered what does not work and we are doing those same things more and more.  It occurs to me that just a few interventions could dramatically alter the path we are pursuing, a path that I believe leads to self-destruction.

Power.  Our systems are built on the notions that electricity and fossil fuels provide our power.  It is those two notions that have most contributed to the state of our climate and the political hegemony on this planet.  We must master fusion.  Or solar.  Clean.  Limitless.  Once mastered and all corners of the planet have access to free power the world will change.  Hunger could end.  Pollution could end.  Disease could end.  Once power is as available to all in the same way that air is available to all our world will look very different.  It will look better.

Beliefs.  The largest obstacle to peace on the planet is an array of belief systems that seek to set policy, control people, and have their own way.  It is difficult to argue with “believers” because facts, science, logic hold no sway over those entrenched and intransigent.  But we must abandon our religious beliefs.  They are all false.  Once our decisions are made based on logic, science, math and standard ethical assumptions conflict on our planet will virtually disappear.  And the key ethical assumption underlying all our decisions is that all humans are equal and are entitled to civil liberties.  Religion is the source of much of the political and social and ethical conflict on this planet.  We can disagree, but one side will not be convinced they are right because some god is on their side making compromise impossible and war inevitable.

Education.  We absolutely must provide the very best education possible to every person on this planet.  We have institutionalized ignorance.  We have tolerated lies.  We have tolerated beliefs grounded in nonsense.  Women are denied an education in way too many places.  Children of all stripes do not receive quality education because of local customs and religious beliefs.  But until everyone on the planet is capable of digesting an ever growing array of facts and reaching conclusions, until everyone on the planet is capable of critical decision making, until everyone on the planet speaks the common languages of science, math, literature and the arts we are doomed to remain an ignorant and self-destructive species.  Privatizing the source of education is not the answer.  All must receive the very best.  And those who teach much be honored and valued more than those who play games, buy property, provide entertainment, and pollute the atmosphere.  Knowing, thinking and problem solving should be our most desired abilities.  Such abilities are only obtained via education.

OK.  That’s just for starters.  Accomplish these three biggies and we will be well on our way to living in peace on a planet we are not destroying where each human is valued.  Sounds like noble goals to me.

Make America Great Again

Another shooting, this time in California, and this time an elementary school as the target.  Conclusion:  Guns don’t kill people, people kill people and we do not need to restrict gun ownership in the United States.  We are safer with more guns out there.

Trump is averaging 5.5 lies per day 7 days per week since his inauguration.  He tweeted sympathy to Texas instead of California for the most recent shooting.  Conclusion:  Trump remains a competent President worthy of support.

16,000 scientists from 184 countries sign a letter to humanity warning us that planet earth is in serious trouble and if we do not do something the damage will be irreversible.  Conclusion:  Human impact on climate change is an unsubstantiated theory so we do not need to worry.  Oil companies continue to prosper.

Every nation on the planet except the United States signs the Paris Accords calling for a reduction in fossil fuel pollution of our atmosphere.  Conclusion:  Human impact on climate change is an unsubstantiated theory so we do not need to worry.  Oil companies continue to prosper.

Fox news anchor supports pedophile senatorial candidate.  Keurig pulls ads from his show.  Conclusion:  Keurig is wrong and we should trash our Keurig coffee makers.  Keurig backs off.

Surgeon General determines that smoking cigarettes may cause lung cancer and heart disease, and also true for second-hand smoke.  Conclusion:  seriously enforce restrictions on purchasing cigarettes, ban smoking in all public places, shame smokers and dramatically reduce consumption in US.  Tobacco companies lose money.

It is clear that the proposed tax plan only helps the top 3% of income earners and corporations in this country.  It hurts middle and lower class working Americans.  It dramatically cuts social security benefits and Medicare benefits.  Conclusion:  Congress is determined to pass the plan and many middle class and lower class Americans support the plan.

In the history of walls, no wall over time has ever kept people out or in.  Ever.  Conclusion:  we need to spend billions of dollars to build a wall to keep some people out.

Conservative Christians want to see the government endorse their religious beliefs and make them law.  Conclusion:  time to end the separation of church and state just as ISIS, Taliban, and Al Qaeda propose.

Athletes choose to exercise their Constitutional rights to peacefully protest the treatment of African Americans at the hands of law enforcement.  Conclusion:  Those athletes are un-American, un-patriotic and the NFL should be boycotted.

Except for tobacco it appears that every time we attempt to value human life and liberty over making money or enforcing the beliefs of some, such values lose. 

I agree.  It is time to make America great again.  A nation that stands for liberty, freedom, protects the rights of minorities, protects the rights of people who have diverse religious beliefs, values human life and health over corporate profit, protects the health of every American, not just the rich, and says to the world, we will do what is right no matter what the cost.  Our current America has abandoned all of that.  We have endorsed fear, bigotry, and ego-centrism.  That is not progress.  That is the path to war, not peace; conflict not leadership; judgment not tolerance; polarization not community.   

Why can’t we see that?  Our beliefs conflict with our logic.  Logic is losing.  When they look back on the late, great US of A and the paths we chose, they will say the seeds of our destruction were obvious.  It was not moral decline, it was the insistence that my morals, my beliefs, no matter how wrong or harmful become law. 

Please make America great again while we still have time.

Accused Equals Guilt

Such an interesting time in our nation as many values and practices garner new scrutiny.  Accusing someone of sexual harassment is one of the areas where dramatic change is occurring.  We have moved from a culture where women were shamed and threatened and castigated when making such claims against men to a time where once someone claims to have been assaulted by another the verdict is immediately assumed to be “guilty” and the punishment is handed down before there is even a trial.  Neither of those responses is appropriate in my book.

It takes great courage to step forward and accuse someone of committing sexual harassment, or worse.  The harasser or assaulter is usually someone more powerful, more influential in some way than the victim.  Those who accuse know they will likely be put on trial as it is a “He said, she said” kind of case with no witnesses, or the even happened in the past and the opportunity to collect any kind of evidence is long gone.  I tend to side with the accuser, with the victim.  As a school superintendent when either students or employees came to me with stories of harassment or worse I tended to believe them.  In those cases the accused was never likely to pay millions to hush the complaint.

And yet, I remain deeply disturbed with how we are responding to those who are accused.  In every criminal or civil case where someone is alleged to do have done wrong and/or broken the law we typically begin with the presumption of innocence until guilt is proven.  What I see in these guys is assumption of guilt and the meting out of punishment before the accused has little more to do in their defense than to say, “I am innocent.”  A list of accused can be found at https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2017/11/10/us/men-accused-sexual-misconduct-weinstein.html

Most interesting is that of the 22 who have been accused, some (9) have confessed their guilt, and most have claimed innocence.  All of them have already been punished.  They have been fired, replaced, removed from positions of responsibility, etc., and none of them have been found guilty in court.  Those who confess their guilt and throw themselves on the mercy of the court and of public opinion are to be commended for their honesty.  The others deserve their day in court before they are punished.

Accusation cannot equal guilt.  Not in a land where we cherish freedom, abide by law and trust our peers to judge us in an open courtroom.

Time for Sadie Hawkins Year

I am appalled by the number of women coming forward to share sexual harassment stories.  The numbers are incredible.  I am angered.  Evidently there are large numbers of men who use power, position, and threat of retaliation, etc. to force women into sexual activities.  Those males are wimps, one and all.  Clearly, in my humble opinion, no stable male, no reasonable male, no real male would be interested in affection that was forced or blackmailed.  I do have a hard time understanding these guys.

I have also have had a hard time from time to time reading signals from women.  Are you being nice to me because I am the boss?  Are you touching my arm a lot when we talk just out of habit?  Do you greet me with a hug all the time because we are friends?  I love for women to act as though they find me attractive.  It is a real ego boost even if we just smile at each other across the pews in church.  I don’t act on those cues. 

So it seems we might be able to solve a lot of issues if we all agree in the coming year to reverse roles.  Let’s call it Sadie Hawkins year.  If a women is interested in romance or affection it is totally up to her to initiate.  That would include dates and in the bedroom.  We guys will just sit and wait, bat our eyes or flex our biceps.  This should apply to married couples as well.  It is the year beyond women’s’ liberation, it is the year of women’s initiation!

Thank goodness we agreed to that.  I feel much more relaxed and can sit in the wings and cheer on the prosecution of the males who sexually harassed women.

Truth Tellers and Liars

Many of my friends lament the state of affairs in our nation and grow weary of the attacks flying around between the two political perspectives.  Conspiracy theories abound.  I spend a lot of time fact checking the news I hear and read, and am really certain that I know who is lying, who is spreading propaganda to protect their own self-interest, and who is in fact reporting news from the perspective of a non-biased journalist.

But there are ways to test truth tellers and liars that are fairly simple.  Ways I learned in my philosophy classes in college.  Here is how it goes.

There are two doors.  Behind one door are riches untold.  We’ll call that door 1.  Behind the other door is pain and death.  We’ll call that door 2.  Beside each door sits a man.  One man, Sam, always, always tells the truth.  The other man, Sean, always, always lies.  Sam and Sean know which door leads to wealth and which door leads to death.  Door 1 leads to wealth.  Door 2 leads to death.  You approach.  You can ask one of these men one question and based on their answer decide which door to open.  You ask one man one question, and open the correct door.  How did you do that?

If you asked Sam, who always tells the truth, what door Sean would tell you to open for wealth, Sam knows Sean will lie, so Sam will say door 2 because that is the truth regarding the answer Sean would give.  If on the other hand, you asked Sean which door Sam would tell you to open, and Sean knows Sam will tell the truth and answer door 1, but Sean always lies, he would answer door 2.  You open door 1 and gain untold wealth!  You choose the door neither report.

Among the many conspiracy theories floating around is one that posits Hilary Clinton had a hand in the sale of Uranium to the Russians, and somehow that is a bad thing.  The other is that Donald Trump and his closest advisors colluded with Russia to make money and gain negative information about Hillary Clinton.  How do you know which to believe?  Simple.  Let’s say Sean works for Fox News and Sam works for CNN.  Their truth and lie roles remain the same.  Ask Sean which conspiracy Sam thinks is real.  Sean will lie and say the Hillary conspiracy.  Ask Sam which conspiracy he thinks Sean will say is real, and Sam will say the Hillary conspiracy.  Therefore, the Hillary conspiracy is false and the Russia conspiracy is true.  You can change the players but the answer will always be the same.

Fox spends all day headlining false conspiracies.  Uranium, emails, Benghazi.  CNN spends all day headlining Trump, Manafort, Gates, et. al.  Fox lies.  CNN tells the truth.  In interviews on Fox the anchors always ask, “Why isn’t the mainstream media focusing on these conspiracy theories we keep bringing up?”  Simple.  They are lies.

Fox “News” is a misnomer.  Fox owner Rupert Murdoch insists that the news always favor Trump.  That’s sad because they then report beliefs rather than news, editorialize rather than report.  CNN, and ABC, and NBC, and CBS and MSNBC are committed to reporting the truth because they are owned by corporations who do not want to take sides, do not want to get sued, and want to present the news.  Therefore, those stations always appear out of step with Fox.  The problem, the liar, is Fox.  Fox Sports is pretty much what you would expect it to be, Fox TV series the same.  It is the “News” that is rampant campaign and propaganda material, totally slanted in one direction.  Perhaps the name should be changed to Fox Pas.

As soon as more and more Americans understand that, test that, fact check that, the more likely we are to agree that it is time for Trump to go.  (And take Fox and Murdock with him as far as I am concerned.)  Persecuting Hillary has been a Fox avocation for years and years.  They are determined to find something so scandalous that the real news will be ignored.  Hillary lost.  Proving anything about her is irrelevant.  She cannot be impeached as she does not hold office.  Trump is President and is responsible for all that comes out of his campaign and the Executive Branch.  Red Herrings, conspiracy theories and lies should not throw our fourth estate off the truth.  In fact, if one is perfect the blame is always cast somewhere else:  Obama, Clinton, Congress, “fake” news (which turns out to be real news), and now his son-in-law.

Trump lies.  All the time.  He must be removed from office to save America.  That is not a pro-Clinton comment.  That is a pro-American comment.