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Oct. 21, 2024 Editor, The News-Gazette: I urge voters to join me in voting for Kamala Harris for president. Harris has the knowledge, experience, and patience needed for the top job in the US. She fully understands the presidential “job dDescription” and has the ability and disposition to work effectively with Congress, national and state officials, and staff in order to help citizens and their communities.
Her opponent (Donald Trump) has demonstrated in his one presidential term, and since, that he neither understands nor cares about the that job description. He doesn’t respect the principle of checks and balances that all of us should have learned in high school. Rather than “Carry out the laws” passed by Congress, he seems to think that he can just make others do everything he tells them to do. That has never been the American way and never should be.
A vote for Kamala Harris is a vote to protect our constitutional democracy. Every day she demonstrates that she understands and believes in the American way of life and government.
NANALOUW. SAUDER Rockbridge County -Editor, The News-Gazette: Kamala Harris has been criticized for not distinguishing her economic policies from that of the Biden administration. Some criticism stems from selective listening: she has provided specific proposals for helping first time home buyers and new parents. But she won’t chart a new course for the economy simply because the Biden/Harris economy is working. Collectively, we dodged a depression. By every measure the economy is robust. Inflation is down to pre-pandemic times, unemployment is low at 4.1%, and there are almost 7 million more jobs than before Covid. The stock market is at record highs, many Americans are getting chunky pay raises, middle-class wealth is at a record high, and the Federal Reserve has begun to cut interest rates.
Trump, on the other hand, wants to impose a 60% tariff on all Chinese goods and a “universal’’ tariff of 10% or 20% on everything else that enters the United States. Trump’s claims notwithstanding, foreign nations do not pay tariffs; those costs get added to higher priced goods paid by American consumers. Sixteen Nobel Prize-winning economists signed a letter in June warning that Trump’s proposals would “reignite’’ inflation. The six-time bankrupt Trump is wrong for the economy and for the nation.
WALTER C. BOUZARD Rockbridge County -Editor, The News-Gazette: As every public-school teacher knows, the day starts with the Pledge of Allegiance. When I taught high school at PMHS, my students ignored the Pledge, preferring to copy last-minute homework, gossip, or scroll through Facebook. “Hey, y’all,” I asked. “Why am I the only one saying the Pledge? Stand up.”
Consider your vote in this presidential election a “Pledge of Allegiance” to one of two very different visions of “the Republic for which [the flag] stands.”
A republic is a country that does not have a monarch or dictator as its head of state. But Trump, who has vowed to dismantle democratic institutions and be “a dictator on day one,” disregards this fact. Were he elected, Americans would be required to recite an oath of loyalty to Trump, or suffer dire consequences: “I pledge Obedience to the Boss Of the Divided States of Chaos, And to the Autocracy For which He Lies, One Cult, under Trump, With Power and Protection for one.”
In stark contrast, Harris values a republic as a democracy “for the people,” and is running to protect our precious freedoms and human rights. Do you wish to pledge yourself to the unchecked powers of one, or to “liberty and justice for all”? Be a true patriot and vote for team Harris! DEMAREE PECK Lexington -Editor, The News-Gazette: As a lawyer, as a citizen, and as a Jew, I am compelled to say to my fellow citizens, “It’s time to wake up.”
Over 400,000 American soldiers died in World War II. Those soldiers fought to stop a dictator who killed millions of citizens who he claimed were vermin, criminals and the cause of all the problems his country faced. He persecuted, arrested and murdered others whose only crime was disloyalty to him.
Unbelievably, we are faced with the possible election of a man who seems remarkably similar to the man who led Germany to ruin. Have we learned nothing from history? Is it that we think that Mr. Trump is just all talk?
I think not. Just this past week, he said that he would use the military against “the threat from within,” meaning his political enemies, specifically naming a congressman.
Listen to the many high-ranking menandwomenwhoworked in his administration, some of whom were our military leaders. They know the real Trump. Many have warned us he is unfit for office and his election is the beginning of the end of everything our soldiers fought and died for.
It will slip away if we let it.
JONATHAN SHAPIRO Rockbridge County -Editor, The News-Gazette: Most people have decided how they will vote, and many have already voted. Some have not and remain undecided, saying their vote is a choice between the lesser of two evils. I ask you to examine the importance of your vote. It is not a choice between the lesser of two evils but between the rule of law and anarchy. FRANK SETTLE Lexington -Editor, The News-Gazette: It’s hard to believe anyone with a moral compass can look at their children or loved ones in the eyes after supporting this man: 91 criminal charges, 4 indictments, 2 impeachments, 26 sexual assault allegations, $5 million sexual abuse settlement, 34 felonies, paying hush money to a porn star (for an affair as his wife was at home with a newborn).
Frighteningly, look at what this felon has normalized. He calls out individual citizens and puts their lives at risk with vitriol and violent rhetoric. Bigotry, incivility, and misogyny should be a deal breaker. Forty thousand lies should have been a deal breaker. He stole the rights of women to make choices for their own bodily autonomy. — But if that wasn’t enough, a violent insurrection, where several died, and his own VP was slated to be hanged. Normally, it would be enough to make our hair stand on end. But these aren’t normal times, and this isn’t a normal election.
In any other context, Trump could not be hired as a teacher, coach, librarian, civil servant, police officer, firefighter, judge, gas station attendant, or custodian. Then why would we want to give this felon the highest job in the land? CYNTHIA ATKINS Rockbridge -Editor, The News-Gazette: It is time to take a deep breath and make a clear and informed decision as to who you are going to vote for on Election Day.
Do you want an energetic, smart, upbeat, positive, dedicated leader, like Harris, who has all Americans’ best interests in mind, or do you want the opposite. The opposite, Trump, a blithering loser, who is convicted of 34 felonies, sexual assault, stealing top secret government documents and lying unabashedly to anyone who would waste their time to listen!
In Trump’s latest absurd rants he claims he is the “Father of IVF” and threatened to use the U.S. military to retaliate against our fellow citizens, if they don’t abide by his “rules.” He calls dedicated congressmen like Adam Schiff, “enemies of the state!” Think very carefully on this last statement and you will see alarming parallels with dictators in third world countries! He has offered no plans as to how he is going to accomplish all he has promised.
He is absolutely no friend of the working, middle class! How many private contractors did he stiff over time? Many!
He is by no means fit to be a commander in chief of anything, much less our fine military!
Philip Clayton, Lt. Col., USAF (ret.)
