This is Viewpoints for Tuesday, March 21, 2017

Call Trump out

A recent CBS news report mentioned Jones County resident Linda Preast, a handicapped Trump supporter dependent on the Meals on Wheels program. I sympathize with her upset that because of budget cuts, the program is at risk. Preast is quoted as saying she’d like to tell President Trump “What if it was your mama . . . (who was losing access to the program.)

Unfortunately Preast and many others misread Trump from the very beginning. Neither he nor any of his billionaire cabinet members have ever indicated a capacity to empathize with ordinary Americans. Trump has lied about so many things while following policies many of which are designed to enrich his own family’s wealth. He has refused to release his tax returns, refused to put his businesses and investments into a blind trust and in so many ways thumbed his nose at ordinary people. He and Speaker of the House Paul Ryan support a health insurance program which will leave millions of Americans without the ability to get the medical care they need.

It is time people like Preast join the growing numbers of people calling on their congressional representatives to call out Trump. Tell your congressman and senators to support programs like Meals on Wheels, to oppose the poorly thought out Republican alternative to the Affordable Care Act and to stand up to a president who puts Americans to shame.

Vulcanologist

The sun’s surface is around 10 million degrees and almost 93 million miles from the Earth. The Earth’s core of molting lava is estimated to be 2,000 degrees hotter than the surface of the sun and is a mere 1,800 miles from the Earth’s surface. That’s the distance between Macon and Phoenix, Arizona.

Consuming Earth’s resources impacts air quality is indisputable, however, the effect on temperature fluctuation is negligible. But, what if removing water, oil, coal and the other natural resources we’re also removing some of the insulation that helps keep us from the tremendous heat just 1,800 miles below our feet?

Would the removal increase the Earth’s surface temperature (just enough) in those locations to affect the air flow which affects weather patterns? When heat rises it draws in cooler air.

Town hall?

Another congressional recess is coming up in a few weeks. One wonders if Rep. Austin Scott will do his job and hold live town hall meetings with his constituents. Funny, but I would lose my job if I didn’t do my work.

Above the law?

I tried really hard to make it through today without writing a letter to the editor, but two events transpired during the last 24 hours which overrode my good intentions. First, at least one federal judge somewhere in the U.S. (an Obama appointee) put some kind of hold on President Trump’s temporary travel ban on citizens from six middle eastern countries — countries whose governments are either non-existent or whose ability to provide information required to complete a vetting process is seriously impaired. This ban was proposed in the last year of Obama’s reign, but wasn’t implemented, for some reason. So along comes Trump and puts the temporary ban into place, a move which is expressly authorized by federal statute.

Yes, he has unlimited and unfettered authority (It’s a law passed by Congress and signed by the president.) to limit immigration as he sees fit if he believes our national security is in jeopardy. He does not have to ask anybody for permission, least of all an activist judge, and he is not required to pick and choose the group or groups he decides to ban from our borders.

Then comes today’s Telegraph. A reader, a Clarence Berry, implies that President Trump’s attempted travel suspension will not make us safer. Really?

So we should just let everyone who wants to come in from the six targeted countries just come without any background checks at all? Even though ISIS has publicly stated that it will try to blend its fighters in with any refugees admitted from certain middle eastern countries?

Then he postulates that “it’s to fulfill a campaign promise.” Of course it is. What is his point? That’s what Trump is all about, fulfilling his campaign promises. Then the writer takes us along on a convoluted math lesson where we’re taught that since it’s been 40 days since the first suspension was blocked, the president should only need 50 days to make the second one work? I hope I’m writing all this correctly. I know, I had a hard time following them too.

He does make one valid point, however. This suspension will in all likelihood have to be extended. I don’t see these problems being fixed within the 90 day framework of the suspension. Trump should just go ahead and really light up the elitists in the government and the press and make the suspension a permanent ban.

We don’t need any more immigrants or refugees from the Middle East anyway. If this suspension prevents just one terrorist attack on our soil, it will have been well worth it.

As for the activist judges who issued the current hold to the suspension, if I were Trump, I’d just ignore the judges and implement the suspension anyway. Wouldn’t it be cool to see what happens then? Neither the old school politicians nor the media are ready for Donald Trump. What a country.

Ask and receive

I enjoy reading the letters to the editor each week. Brian T. Reid, Sr. wrote a letter to the editor March 16. He stated, “The Bible is there for me to learn about man and God. Whatever you believe about God, hold it dear to your heart; God will hold you close also.”

I have read the Bible through from Genesis to Revelation each year for over 25 years. It’s a blessing to know “All scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness,” 2 Timothy 3:16.

As we continue reading the scriptures year after year, God’s word transforms our lives. Reid mentioned, “Now as a senior citizen I believe and need not ask questions.” We never get too old to ask questions and when we do, God hears and answers.

“Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened.” Matthew 7:7-8.

This story was originally published March 20, 2017 at 9:00 PM with the headline "This is Viewpoints for Tuesday, March 21, 2017."