Grownups revisited
In his “Letter to the editor,” to the Record-Bee, on Thursday, May 25, titled, “Grownups,” Howard Glasser gave an extreme right-wing rant about the lack of grownups in our current American sphere of politics. He reminded me of some startling testimony given by Cassidy Hutchison, secretary for Trump’s White House Chief of Staff, Mark Meadows, during the House of Representatives’ Panel to investigate the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the Capitol in Washington D.C.
Hutchison testified she was aware that several times throughout her tenure in the White House, that Trump, while angry, either threw dishes of food or pulled the tablecloth full of food off the table during meals in the
dining room of the West Wing.
Hutchison specifically recounted an incident, several days before the attack on the Capitol, when Trump was watching a live broadcast, during lunch, of an Associated Press interview in which then-Attorney General William Barr dismissed claims of widespread election fraud during the 2020 election, (despite Trump’s claims to the contrary). From Mark Meadows’ office, Hutchison heard some commotion coming from down the hall. After things quieted down, she cautiously approached the dining room where the door had been left open. “I first noticed there was ketchup dripping down the wall, and there was a shattered porcelain plate,” she testified to the Panel. Only a valet was still in the room. Acting like a grownup, she grabbed a towel and helped the valet (another grownup) clean up the mess. Trump remained unaccountable for his infantile tantrum.
The attack on our nation’s Capitol a few days later, was a much bigger mess. It will take several years and a lot of grownups, to bring to justice all of those that are responsible for interfering in our 2020 presidential election.
—Dennis Purcell, Kelseyville
The case for placement of books and the Bible
Republicans and Democrats today contest school library placement of books discussing the LGBTQ lifestyle, including even the Bible.
There truly are larger educational issues to worry about folks. For example, we might want to fret about the unavailability of books of classical history in the school library, and the disappearance of the most important component of the American school curriculum—law-related education.
The classics teach children that what history saw once before is now happening again. The LRE curriculum teaches children why law is important, what is in the law, and why citizens must supervise and enforce the law in a democracy.
Of course, the political concern about school books is broader than just sexual content. Conservative folks want the Bible and its fundamentalist interpretation to be taught in schools and revered in public spaces everywhere. Liberals want the Bible to disappear from schools for that reason alone.
Imagine the surprise of both liberals and conservatives alike if the Bible, as competent scholars of history have found, is not a book about sin, theology, and church attendance at all. It is a book about the political, legal, and cultural history of an ancient, diverse, democratic nation much like our own. In fact, its placement is as appropriate in any public school library as Aristotle, Cicero, Emily Bronte, or Charles Dickens. There is plenty of both liberal and conservative in it, and a smart society must learn how to deal with it.
—Kimball Shinkoskey, Woods Cross, Utah
