February, our Presidents and my fears

Shannon Bohrer

(2/2019) February is a great month, from my perspective, possibly because I was born in February. We also have President’s Day and Valentine’s Day making February a patriotic month and a time to celebrate the special persons in our lives. Of course, patriotism is a love of county and Valentine’s Day is about love, so the two holidays should be somewhat compatible. February is also the bridge between winter and spring, you know winter is not over, but we know spring is on the way.

It is my opinion that Presidents day is a very important and an educational holiday to our nation. I am not talking about all of the President Day sales, the automobile, mattress and furniture sales. The importance is reflecting our history, our presidents and how they have shaped and enhanced our county. In celebrating our Presidents Day, we should think about the Presidents and what they contributed to our country.

A good example to begin with is an often-cited quote from George Washington about the free press, "If the freedom of speech is taken away then dumb and silent we may be led, like sheep to the slaughter." As a writer I feel this quote is very important today. When people say that you cannot trust the media, often calling the media the "Fake News" I think we should question why? Do individuals or groups have a motivation to disparage real facts - as fake news? Most of the major news is real and factual. We may have different opinions about words and events, but our opinions are not facts. Just because you may not agree with something does not mean it is fake. Conversely, in the wide realm of news, fake news and alternative facts do exist, and when it does it should be exposed.

Our current president consistently undermines the major new networks, with one notable exception, and refers to them as fake news, possibly because of all the negative press coverage of him. A large part of the negative press coverage is because he has been under investigation for possible collusion with Russia, which allegedly occurred during the presidential election. The president repeats that the news is fake and there was no collusion. Yet, the Muller investigation has resulted in indictments of 33 people and three companies. This includes 26 Russians, three Russian companies and 5 (former) Trump advisors. Seven of the indicted individuals have pleaded guilty, and 5 are former Trump aids. Obviously, the president does not like the news - but these are the facts.

The president certainly has the right, as all citizens do, to protest his innocence. However, blaming the press and blaming criminal justice institutions within the government, does not address the indictments. With 33 indictments, there is something there, it may not include the president, but the press is only reporting facts. This president’s lack of candor and honesty is also well documented and it calls into question – everything he questions. An appropriate quote from George Washington. "Truth will ultimately prevail where there is pains to bring it to light." Or in Harry Potter’s world, "The truth will out."

Our president lies so much that organizations and media outlets have reporters and staff just to track the false and misleading statements. It has been widely reported that President Trump made 1,318 false and misleading statements in his first nine months in office. That’s an average of 5 each day. The president then "trumped" that number by making 1,419 false and/or misleading statements in just seven weeks. This was the seven weeks before the midterm elections. That’s an average of 30 each day. All of this information is available from multiple sources.

I know that there are some Trump supporters that will disagree with what I have written and I have great empathy for those persons because eventually the, "Truth will ultimately prevail." Every media outlet, including conservative media, has called out the president for his misleading, half-truths and lies. What concerns me it that fact that the president still has followers that believe him. It is not fake news - that our president has trouble with the truth.

A recent example of the president’s misleading and lying was when he visited a war zone, visiting our military troops during the Christmas Holidays. The president told a large group of soldiers that he authorized a 10 percent pay raise and that they (the military) have not had a raise in 10 years. In fact, the military has had a raise every year for the last 10 years. This year’s raise was 2.6 percent, not 10 percent as he claimed. The president also stated that others in the government wanted a 3 or 4 percent raise and he stated, "I said, ‘No. Make it 10 per cent’. Cause it’ been a long time, it’s been more than 10 years. "

An appropriate quote by Thomas Jefferson, "Honesty is the first chapter in the book of wisdom." It does not matter how smart or wise one is, if they can’t tell the truth. The problem with dishonesty is trust. How can we trust someone that habitually does not tell the truth? The larger problem is that the person is our president. The president should be given credit for finally visiting the troops on Christmas. He arrived late on Christmas day, and spoke to the troops the following day, but, why lie about a pay raise?

While we have president that has problems with the truth and facts, there was another story prior to Christmas that stunned me. The Trump Foundation; a non-profit charitable organization, agreed to a court-supervised closing and a distribution of any remaining funds. What shocked me were the facts in the New York Attorney Generals lawsuit. The law suit alleged that the president and his family "illegally operated the foundation as an extension of his business and his presidential campaign." In other words, this "charity" was used as his personal slush fund.

The New York Attorney General s Office is seeking restitution of almost 3 million dollars and a 10-year ban of the president and three of his children, "from running any charities in New York" We have a president and his family that are prohibited from even being board members of any charity in New York, for 10 years. Those facts are distressing and frightening. This story disturbed me more that the presidents trouble with honesty and facts – and yet they have a common theme.

I would never have thought that we could have a president that is prohibited, by court order, from being involved with a charity. That scares me.