A tale of two fiddlers
Legend and history have it that Nero neglected the maintenance of Rome. When catastrophic fires broke out, he ignored them. When the Roman Senate spoke out, he sought a scapegoat and settled on the Christians, which he martyred in the coliseum. He allegedly “fiddled while Rome burned.”
In a modern tale, the President was warned that a “fire of major proportions” was coming. Taiwan, Germany and South Korea began preparing in December 2019.
The intelligence services briefed the President by early January 2020, but the President “fiddled.”
He was further warned by Alex Azar, United States Secretary of Health and Human Services, and by his international trade representative, Peter Navarro. He continued to “fiddle.”
In late January he halted flights from China and claimed great credit for his prompt action to reduce the threat. But he continued to “fiddle.”
In late February he appointed a White House Task Force and “fiddled on.”
He proclaimed himself a “wartime President,” activated the Defense Procurement Act (DPA), took no action to use it, still fiddling.
As deaths rose and people challenged his inaction, he looked for scapegoats. First it was the Democrats, then the Obama administration, then the governors who should have been prepared, then China and the World Health Organization. All the while he fiddled away.
Now, way too late, he claims great credit for the supplies being procured under the DPA that were desperately needed while he “fiddled.”
The coliseum might be crowded!
Paul Wessel
Sequim
Solar project a waste
I just saw the article in the Sequim news about the solar panels installed on the Civic Center. I am wondering how the committee came to the conclusion that this should have been done at all. It seems to be a terrific waste of taxpayer money.
It will take over 60 years to pay it off. How can that even be thought efficient?
The money from the general fund could have been used for so many better things in and for the city. It seems it was just a “look good” idea. The carbon footprint is also ridiculous there is no way it can come to that much per year.
I hope this wakes a lot of us up to get more involved in what is happening in our beautiful city.
Sandra Aronsen
Sequim
Tribe did it again
It looks like the Jamestown S’Klallam Tribe has done it again. They have co-oped the Clallam County hearing examiner into approving commercial oyster operations in the Dungeness National Wildlife Refuge after the county staff denied it.
This, along with the tribe’s drug distribution facility, is a further indication that the tribe is much more interested in making questionable profits than worrying about damaging the environment and our community’s quality of life.
What makes these actions all the more distressing is the complicity of our local and state politicians. It appears that courage, commonsense and accountability are not necessary traits for our public officials. If you remember a few months ago, representatives Mike Chapman and Steve Tharinger and Sen. Kevin Van De Wege attended a Sequim City Council meeting. Instead of staying after the meeting to discuss the tribe’s medication-assisted treatment (MAT) clinic and answer questions, these three pillars of courage ducked out the back door.
This type of behavior seems to be typical of our elected officials when dealing with the tribe and their money-making schemes.
It is time to stop the tribe’s actions against our community and hold our elected officials accountable to us and not a special interest.
Robert and Carole Travis
Sequim
‘Embarrassed,’ ‘saddened’ by actions
On Wednesday evening (June 3), the owner of FREDS Guns and some followers shadowed a peaceful protest in downtown Sequim. Many were wearing tactical gear and carrying automatic weapons. It’s hard to imagine that a group of black males could’ve done the same thing and experienced an equal result.
In this case, the police didn’t ask for help from FREDS Guns. The only thing it did was to scare the brave citizens willing to take a stand on racial injustice.
As an American, I am proud of those who pursue non-violent civil disobedience for what is right.
But I am embarrassed (and saddened) by those in our community who disguise bigotry as patriotism and who confuse courage with stupidity. We can do better.
Kyle E. Johnson
Sequim
China is no friend to U.S.
The coronavirus pandemic has had a huge negative influence on nearly every person on the planet, but there hopefully will be one enlightening aspect. That concerns our relationship with communist China.
Many of us have long realized how dangerous this relationship is as China has continued to steal, lie, deceive and connive it’s way to prosperity and world power (www.theguardian.com/world/2020/feb/06/china-technology-theft-fbi-biggest-threat; www.cnbc.com/2019/02/28/1-in-5-companies-say-china-stole-their-ip-within-the-last-year-cnbc.html).
Allowing a massive amount of American manufacturing to be transferred to China has not only cost us millions of good jobs, but has made us dangerously dependent on the whims of a communist leadership who has publicly stated the goal of replacing the U.S. as the world’s No. 1 economic and military power.
What American leadership urgently needs to do is create very strong incentives for American companies to exit China and relocate either back to this country or a friendly Western country. Perhaps this could be accomplished by shaming them into doing the right thing, or putting on an escalating China product tariff, or even allotting funds to aid in the transition.
One way or another, we need to immediately start disengaging economically from China, a country that has created horrible death and economic destruction across the globe.
We can no longer tolerate such an evil and ill-intentioned communist leadership.
We tried to bring China into the sphere of fair-minded countries, but unfortunately this has failed miserably. Instead, China has turned out to be an evil and conniving international pariah.
This now is a matter of urgent national security, and even national survival.
Greg Carroll
Sequim
