To the editor:
Regarding the coronavirus, President Donald Trump claims that he takes no responsibility for the lack of preparedness this nation found itself in when the virus hit our shores.
As if anyone should have expected any other response. And now, in order to downplay his lack of any concern in seeing this nation prepared as much as possible, he defends himself with “no one could have expected this.”
Really? He’s never heard of the 1918 Spanish flu? Ebola? SARS? MERS, H1N1 (swine flu) and every other large scale, massive epidemic around the globe? How about the plague? No? Wow. I guess when he says he doesn’t read, he really doesn’t read.
This pandemic would be a litmus test for any president. But in a not too distant past, this nation could have at least counted on a president who had not only the leadership skills and ability to work with whomever from wherever to get nothing but the best from all to address it fully head on, but also possess the humility, decency and basic maturity to address it like the threat it was and not blow it off as a “hoax” by the other party. But instead, we get President Trump and his excuses.
What did he think the office in the White House set up to develop strategies for pandemics was there for? Grins and giggles? Like so many other critical and vital pieces in our government established to protect the people of this nation and the nation itself, President Trump just dismissed it without taking more than a passing glance.
Too lazy, too arrogant and too afraid to examine their true purpose and value. Pass the buck and let someone else deal with them, or better yet, just get rid of them. Too busy campaigning nonstop and golfing. Too busy tweeting infantile rants against those who criticize him. Too busy asking foreign countries to interfere in our elections. And too busy with lawyers because his own actions forced our Congress to have to investigate him.
How incredibly ignorant can one person be? More to the point, how incredibly dangerous to the people of this nation can this one individual be? To our health, our lives, our finances and our security?
And now with a viral pandemic sweeping the globe, killing thousands, overwhelming and collapsing health care systems, and leveling our markets and the economy, we’re all finding out.
Lisa Voiles
Whiteland
