That's right. We needn't worry.
Maybe President Obama needs to worry and -- come to think of it -- maybe Hillary should too; but heck, the vast unwashed populous -- that's you and me -- have nothing to worry about.
I felt that I had to make a point of that since last week's column was sort of doom and gloom. You know; poverty's up, food stamps are up, the workforce is down, and the War on Poverty has been a costly disaster. Then, the week before, I kibitzed about the trouble in Baltimore.
All the president has to worry about is his big Arab Summit that nobody came to. He invited the leaders of six Arabian Gulf nations to a meeting at Camp David last week, and only two of them actually showed up. The others discovered they had previous commitments and sent substitutes. One of them, the King of Bahrain, suddenly remembered he had a date with the Queen to attend a horse show, and you know, no respectful King would keep the Queen waiting just to attend a conference about Iran going nuclear.
Could it be that the invited Arabs all happen to be Sunni, while Iran is not? Or that Iran is Shiite and Shiite's have been the mortal enemy of the Sunni since the 7th century? Could that have something to do with the lackluster attendance?
Or could the Arab Sunni kings have the temerity to believe the deal Obama is striking with Iran is careless and dangerous and emboldening the mullahs while further destabilizing the Middle East? Bibi Netanyahu certainly feels this way.
Hillary should worry
Last Tuesday a federal judge in Washington ordered Hillary Clinton to turn over all of the emails she kept on her private server as Secretary of State. This means a smarty pants can be selected by the court to examine her server for even the smallest traces of information from the 32,000 emails Hillary erased claiming they were personal. Hillary lost another court case about a month ago when another federal judge ordered the State Department to turn over all flight manifests and expense records from the 47 overseas flights she made as Secretary of State. Citizens United is trying to determine if there were any political contributors or Clinton Foundation supporters on any of these supposedly official flights. Of course she will appeal, but look out Hillary!
Telling it like it is
I certainly got my "comeuppance" from a reader last week. His letter to the editor of this humble journal gave me "what for" about the column I wrote concerning the trouble in Baltimore. But wait a darn minute. On second thought, when re-reading his letter, I noted he actually agrees with many points I made, and it seems he agrees more than he disagrees (and probably more than he suspects he does).
He was critical of me when I averred that the trouble in Baltimore stems from its long and successive reign of Democrats. Then he tried to substantiate his disagreement by stating, "The situation stems not from party affiliation but to lack of competent supervision in the police department, and to lack of good policy being set by the leaders of the community." I believe that clearly illustrates my complaint about Baltimore.
After all, who's been in charge of the police and who's been leading the community constantly since 1967? If you want a hint it was Nancy Pelosi's brother (a Democrat) followed by six successive mayoral Democrats. And representing Baltimore in Congress it's been Elijah Cummings, preceded by Kweisi Mfume, preceded by Parren Mitchell, preceded by Samuel Friedel, preceded by -- never mind. These guys go back to 1953, and all were Democrats.
One final note. My critic also lambasted me for using the term "Democrat" instead of "Democratic" when describing party affiliation. Well, I prefer Democrat (a noun) to Democratic (an adjective). I also use the term Republican not Republicanic when referring to the GOP.
Eisenhower called them the Democrat Party too, and I liked Ike.
I opine, you decide.
-- Willie Williams is a Siloam Springs resident. He can be reached at [email protected]. The opinions expressed are those of the author.
Editorial on 05/20/2015