Who are we?

Who are we? Who are we? As a nation, our health care system rates at the bottom when compared to European countries, Canada, Australia and New Zealand. We rank last in health performance, highest in cost, last in affordability and availability and last in life span. Our health care insurance is the highest. We are ranked 14th in overall quality of life, are one of the worst for housing affordability and the highest for violent crime. Most disturbing, among the world's most developed nations we have the highest poverty rate, the highest child poverty rate and the greatest poverty gap between the richest and the poorest. In other words, we have a tremendous need for a leader who is not only aware of these problems, but who is here — present — in his office — working in a truly bipartisan manner to solve these many problems. We do not need someone who ignores the problems by becoming the self-declared leader of Venezuela! Throughout his campaigns, Donald Trump asserted "America First." He said there should be no involvement in foreign wars, no use of American taxpayer money for overseas misadventures. So why kidnap the President of Venezuela? I will grant you; Maduro is a terrible person. He sat in his Presidential chair in Caracas illegally; he lost his last election and so has usurped his power (gee, who else tried that in 2020?). That is one reason Trump removed him. Now, there are seven rulers in various African countries that did the same. The leader of Saudi Arabia is a declared murderer; other "presidents" (Putin, for example) have seized control of their countries' constitutions and usurped all power. Why go after Maduro? In spite of Trump's assertions, Venezuela isn't even among the top 15 countries bringing drugs into the U.S. I am going to make a wild guess. The reason Trump exerted his "Donroe Doctrine" is primarily for (1) oil, oil, oil; (2) to block Venezuelan refugees from coming to the U.S. and (3) to have a new "dumping ground" for tremendous numbers of legal and illegal immigrants. The heavy crude oil in Venezuela is perfect to run the machinery of our 1940's industrialization. Trump is totally in the pocket of the oligarchs who control the non-renewable power industries (coal, gas, oil). He blocked all government money for the development of wind farms, blocked research and production on solar energy, blocked funding for geothermal research — all to provide benefits to those who will pollute our air and warm the planet beyond sustainability. As we all know, Trump is a climate-change denier; he does not have the ability to see beyond his own desire for personal wealth and frankly, he doesn't give a damn for the plight of the rest of the world. Let hundreds of small island nations sink to oblivion, let Miami and New York City and Galveston and on and on be flooded, it really doesn't matter to Donald. He's too busy raking in money and running Venezuela. Oh, while he's at it, let him take over Chile and Cuba and Mexico and Canada and — well, how about Greenland? The man is a menace to world stability. I don't have space to write more. I don't have the heart to write more. I have never been more ashamed, not of this country that I will always love, but of the country's leadership. Who are we? Not this, I hope. Bob Murray Tiffin