To the editor:

In a previous letter, I noted how it is often hard to tell what the important issues are when a new administration comes in. This is especially true when many ideas previously dismissed as bizarre, ridiculous or kooky are presented as the new gospel. As a public service, I would like to distinguish those issues which are essential from those which are only diversions.

Number 47’s tactic is to daily throw out announcements that he knows, because he is who he is, will make headlines. Some are clearly diversions that have no serious future: (1) America’s acquisition of Canada, Greenland and Panama; (2) opening up Alcatraz as a prison; (3) acquiring a 747 from the Islamic potentate of Qatar; (4) changing the name of the Gulf of Mexico; and (5) putting a 100% tariff on “non-American” movies.

These red herrings are all designed to divert our attention from the real game-changers. These include: (1) suppressing freedom of speech in universities; (2) suppressing the right to habeas corpus (hearing by court after arrest); (3) suppressing birthright citizenship (guaranteed by the 14th Amendment); (4) punishing protected speech by deportation; and (5) a level of institutionalized corruption (like bitcoin) on a scale so massive as to stagger belief.

Friends, we must keep our eyes on the prize. Life cannot be so dear or peace so sweet where we to do nothing. Resist, resist, do not cease from resisting, until this great evil has been purged from our land!

Jeff Southard,

Lawrence