In that great western movie, we saw a decent gold prospector go up against a ruthless bounty hunter and a dangerous Mexican bandit, one good, one bad, and one ugly. The movie is a kind of a study into the contrasts between the characters of various individuals. So, we will use it, in particular its title, as the premise of this article.
Or, we might call it the right, the wrong, and the ugly that have no sympathy, no empathy for others, as we see going on to some extent in America right now.
The good: *doctors, nurses, and other hospital workers, the EMT’s and other first responders, governors and mayors, those who work in food pantries, and everyone else who is doing everything they possibly can to give aid to those infected with this deadly virus.
They are the heroes that are risking their lives to try to save others, they are the ones working endless hours with little rest; these are the American patriots of today, who are made out of the same cloth as our Founding Fathers.
They do not waste time arguing and debating with each other about medical procedures or who is in control. They know what to do, they have been trained, and are highly skilled. We hear that many of them are simply too tired to work but they forge on and do what is right for their patients, no matter the risk.
There is Governor Andrew Cuomo of New York and other governors who are having a very difficult time working with the federal government and this president in getting the various medical supplies their workers and hospitals must have in this crisis.
Let’s even give some credit to members of Congress, Democrats and Republicans, who have worked together in a bipartisan way to enact legislation to provide critically-needed funding for this entire effort, including those now out of work, as well as businesses that have been forced to shut down.,
And let’s not forget the vast majority of the American people who have cooperated and followed the advice of various elements of government to stay at home and abide by all the rules that have been set down.
The bad: Americans who have watched this president completely fail to respond to this virus threat with a sense of urgency and react swiftly to organize every government agency to provide every need for those who are in the front lines of war against this virus threat.
And no matter how much he has failed to adequately respond and take swift and effective actions, they continue to fully support him and what he is doing. They listen and watch his daily briefings and accept anything he says.
Fox News and other ultraconservative news outlets who cover what is going on and, instead of reporting as dedicated, impartial journalists, they act as no more than facilitators of his personal agenda, using mind conditioning techniques to make their viewers believe everything Trump says.
The ugly; talk about ugly; it’s the pitiful, more than pathetic efforts of the president of this country who should be pulling out all the stops to see that every important aspect of the fight against this virus is carried out in the most effective, expeditious manner. His manner is mostly nonchalant, and it is clear that he is more concerned with the economy and his own reelection than concentrating all his energies on fighting the virus.
At the top of the items of need in this endeavor is that of a program of massive testing to determine the extent of the spread of the virus. China and South Korea got this underway in late January and it has been highly successful but the U.S. has done virtually nothing and it now has tested less than 1% of Americans – atrocious and all due to Trump’s failure to lead.
America’s governors and mayors are working tirelessly to combat this threat and are literally begging Trump to use his presidential powers to obtain the badly needed supplies and equipment needed. He not only ignores them for the most part, telling them that it’s their job to get them, but he has often derided and even impeded their efforts to do so. We have a president who is carrying on a minor feud with these important leaders across America. He should be the leader of their team, he isn’t.
Then we have Trump’s bizarre daily virus status briefing in which he could be showing real leadership by talking about positive progress, new ideas and incentives, testing advancements, and what comes next. Instead, he has largely turned them into sessions talking about how great he and his team have performed, and using them as his political rallies. Disgusting.
The FBI is reporting that they are finding evidence of a substantial, growing incidence of hatred and violence against Asian Americans in America and we can thank this racist president for generating it by his statements about the Wuhan virus and the Chinese virus. He is, without question, inciting violence and he must be stopped.
That is not all. We keep hearing that he wants to liberate three states with Democratic governors, Minnesota, Michigan, and Virginia, from virus restrictions. Those reckless, dangerous statements have triggered actions by protesters in those and other states to come out in public without masks and ignore the six-foot separation rule to demand that the economy is reopened. Again, his cal for actions by certain Americans are not what we need at this point in time.
What we have here is a rogue president that is initiating policies and actions that are detrimental to this country and its people. A large majority of America’s 330 million people are against what he is doing but, because of this country’s corrupted, totally incompetent government, they can’t do a thing about it.
That is, not until the upcoming elections on November 3 which can’t come soon enough. Godspeed America!
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