{"id":1422830,"date":"2020-06-02T22:30:19","date_gmt":"2020-06-03T04:30:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.postindependent.com\/?p=996971"},"modified":"2020-06-02T22:30:19","modified_gmt":"2020-06-03T04:30:19","slug":"wednesday-letters-happiness-lessons-leadership-democrats","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kkch\/local-news\/wednesday-letters-happiness-lessons-leadership-democrats\/","title":{"rendered":"Wednesday letters: Happiness, lessons, leadership, Democrats"},"content":{"rendered":"

Redefining happiness in the Covid-19 age<\/strong><\/p>\n

Happiness is\u2026<\/p>\n

Having enough toilet paper to last two weeks.
Having a minimal number of grocery replacements in my Instacart order for the week.<\/p>\n

Not losing my son\u2019s precious but short phone calls in one of the many dead zones on his trips through the valley.<\/p>\n

Talking (actually talking) to an old friend (or relative) in my former state of Oregon without relying on Facebook or Linked In.<\/p>\n

Receiving a real (rare) card or letter from a distant relative, without the impersonal quick click via cell or computer.<\/p>\n

Having a solitary cocktail (delivered via masked, social distancing relatives) at the end of the day after 3 months of continuing quarantining.<\/p>\n

Waking up on a sunny morning, still alive, in the comfort of an apartment with enough food to last a few more days.<\/p>\n

(Maybe by now your readers have their own revised list. I would love to read.)<\/p>\n

Syd Kanitz
New Castle<\/p>\n

The lessons of Minneapolis<\/strong><\/p>\n

In the 2017 film \u201cThree Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri,\u201d Woody Harrelson, portraying Ebbing Police Chief Bill Willoughby trying to excuse a subordinate who\u2019d tortured a black prisoner, said, \u201cIf we got rid of all the police officers with the slightest bit of racist tendencies, we\u2019d have only three cops left and they\u2019d hate the (gays).\u201d<\/p>\n

That\u2019s a gross overstatement, but the sad fact is racism is rampant in our law enforcement community as evidenced by the brutal murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis and others in the past.<\/p>\n

The company I worked for sent me to a racial sensitivity class. The instructor, who taught these classes all over the country, said the most fervent racists he\u2019d ever encountered were Chicago cops.<\/p>\n

Maybe because of my ponytail, I always seemed to get the police beat as a reporter. More than once I heard sentiments coming from the breakroom like, \u201cIf I know that n-word\u2019s packing, he\u2019s a dead man.\u201d<\/p>\n

The question is why are police officers so prone to these ugly thoughts? Are people with a case of the ass against black people drawn to this kind of work because they see it as an opportunity to get even or do they become racist because of constant negative contact with blacks? Probably both.
What to do about it? For starters, police officers should be among the highest paid public servants there are. The fact they\u2019re paid a subsistence wage attracts the dregs of society.<\/p>\n

The state police in the state I came from, Indiana, are required to have a four-year degree in something, not necessarily law enforcement. They must demonstrate an ability to learn. As a consequence, the Indiana State Police is an outstanding force that helps small town police departments deal with crimes they\u2019re not equipped to handle as state bureaus of investigation do in other states.<\/p>\n

An undergraduate degree in law enforcement with a concentration on a defendant\u2019s rights should be standard for any officer, so they don\u2019t let so many felons go free because they violated the suspect\u2019s civil rights. Applicants should be vetted thoroughly so the bullies and the brutes can be gleaned out.<\/p>\n

As for the protests, I\u2019m from the Gandhi\/MLK school of civil disobedience, so I disapprove of all the looting, burning, and destroying police cruisers. However, I can empathize. A Nigerian proverb says, \u201cA child that doesn\u2019t feel the warmth of a village will burn that village to feel the warmth of the fire.\u201d<\/p>\n

And, of course, as Ed Pratt of The Advocate writes, \u201cRacism has always been around. Now it\u2019s being filmed for all to see.\u201d My father told me back in his day when a black person was killed it wasn\u2019t even reported. As distressing as all this disruption is, it\u2019s better than sweeping it under the rug.<\/p>\n

Fred Malo Jr.
Carbondale<\/p>\n

America is in critical need of a capable leader<\/strong><\/p>\n

Typically, citizens rely on a leader to calm them in times of strife. Trump chose to encourage violence, re-tweeting a video in which a supporter says \u201cThe only good Democrat is a dead Democrat,\u201d and \u201cWhen the looting starts, the shooting starts.\u201d Why is he doing this? Could it be that the protests have overshadowed the major stories that Trump perceived were damaging to his re-election chances: 1) Revelations published last Friday about his 2016 campaign team\u2019s collaboration with Russian spies; 2) His idiotic response to the threat of the coronavirus which has now killed more than 106,500 American citizens, compared with 103 people in Australia, 22 in New Zealand\u2026 if you want the numbers, see Worldometers.info\/coronavirus; 3) The horribly damaged American economy and skyrocketing unemployment.<\/p>\n

The Associated Press reported, \u201cAs cities burned night after night and images of violence dominated television coverage, Trump\u2019s advisers discussed the prospect of an Oval Office address in an attempt to ease tensions. The notion was quickly scrapped for lack of policy proposals and the president\u2019s own seeming disinterest in delivering a message of unity.\u201d
America is in critical need of a capable leader.<\/p>\n

Annette Roberts-Gray
Carbondale<\/p>\n

As usual, Democrats blame President Trump<\/strong><\/p>\n

A rogue, white policeman in Minneapolis is charged with murdering a black suspect. \u201cSystemic racism,\u201d the Dems and their media lap dogs cry. And as usual, they blame President Trump.<\/p>\n

Somehow, the fact that the governor, attorney general, mayor, and police chief in this travesty are all Democrats, escapes our \u201cunbiased\u201d media.
And you \u201ceducated\u201d liberals wonder why the president calls it fake news?<\/p>\n

Bruno Kirchenwitz,
Rifle<\/p>\n

via:: Post Independent<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Redefining happiness in the Covid-19 age Happiness is\u2026 Having enough toilet paper to last two weeks.Having a minimal number of grocery replacements in my Instacart order for the week. Not losing my son\u2019s precious but short phone calls in one of the many dead zones on his trips through the valley. Talking (actually talking) to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[112],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-1422830","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-local-news"},"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-20 16:24:57","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KKCH - The Lift FM","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kkch","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kkch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1422830","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kkch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kkch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kkch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kkch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1422830"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kkch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1422830\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kkch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1422830"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kkch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1422830"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kkch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1422830"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}