‘Resistance’? Seriously?

The author of “More gridlock” (Feb. 24) asked Democrats to end their “resistance” to Trump. We’re to magnanimously accept him as a legitimate president and join a Trump “Kumbaya.” My negative response fills history books. Instead, I’ll ask, why shouldn’t Democrats resist after eight years of Republican obstructionism?

The figure of 60 individuals from the Muslim-majority countries listed in Trump’s travel ban being involved in terror-related crimes is a glittering generality. It’s a statistic that says somebody killed somebody today, somewhere. None of the seven countries in the ban was home to any of the 9/11 attackers.

An average of nine Americans are killed annually by Islamic terrorists on U.S. soil since 9/11 (CNN). Compare that to the 12,843 killed in gun homicides. Since Republicans just eliminated Obama’s extended background checks for gun purchases by 75,000 Social Security recipients with mental disabilities, shouldn’t we be more afraid of our neighbors?

Contrary to the author’s position, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals made the correct decision. It’s proof that even in Trumpland, the Constitution rules. I’m confident the Supreme Court would have found Trump’s ban violated the First and Fifth Amendment’s “religious protection” and “due process” and 14th Amendment’s “equal protection” clauses -- using Trump’s own campaign rhetoric.

Non-citizens have been protected since 1886, but our religious freedom concerns go way back. During the Constitution debate, Founding Father Charles Pickney successfully argued against those warning “if there be no religious test required, pagans, deists and Mahometans (Colonial term for Muslims) might obtain offices among us, and the senators and representatives might all be pagans.” Today’s lawmakers may be pagans, but most aren’t Muslims.

So forgive me if I choose not to join Republicans in the hermetic bubble of Trump’s alternate reality. I refuse to drink the poisoned Kool-Aid.

‘Muddled’ indeed

I had to read Mary Sanchez’s first paragraph three times (in her Sunday column) before I was convinced that she was actually serious about only “muddled minds” wanting segregated public bathrooms. What planet did she come from that has not – historically and consistently – segregated their restrooms?

For the past 65 years that I can remember, we (civilized world) have always had segregated restrooms. They were designated as segregated in my grade school (boys/girls), in my workplaces (men/women), in the military (male/female), and even at my old hunting lodge (pointers/setters).

Reading on, it turned out that she is really only worried about segregation of what might be considered “other gender” patrons. Well, I’m sorry, but God only made two sexes among the billions of humans who inhabit this Earth. A person is born with either XX or XY chromosomes, and that’s the limit of choices (before anyone snipes about double-Y cases, let’s just agree that it’s an extremely rare phenomenon). If you have the XX variety, you are blessed with inside plumbing. On the other hand, the XY contingent has to deal with outside plumbing. Nothing – not wishing and hoping, not “identifying” as somehow “different,” and not even going for the “snip and tuck,” will change your chromosomal arrangement.

As long as XX persons and XY persons are segregated in their bathroom access (as they always have been, with no constitutional upholding of an intrinsic bias), Sanchez’s “victims” will have to play the cards they were dealt. Otherwise, any person, of either sex, could claim to “identify” as the opposite gender, and demand access to that respective restroom – not a scenario that bodes well for our children and grandchildren, whether XX or XY.

The A Team

I believe it is time for the current "decider" in the White House to change his batting order. For example: Since all of "Orange Julius" Caesar's top staff are equally brilliant, let's say swap Press Secretary Spicer for Stephen (Baby Goebbels) Miller.

Substitute Secretary of Energy (who keeps up with our nuclear arsenal & Dancing With the Stars great) Rick Perry with Kellyanne Conway. Who needs nukes when Kellyanne can keep our adversaries confused with her word salad?

Steve Bannon can be education secretary instead of Betsy DeVos. Steve will surely keep school kids’ interest with his charming rhetoric.

Let's keep Dr. Ben Carson, but only to treat President Sugar Daddy if he suffers a stroke.

Swap Rex Tillerson with the Defense Secretary; we could always drown our enemies with Exxon's oil or poison their water with fracking.

The possibilities are endless! What a safe, secure country we live in.

Urgent need

It may be time for Phenix City to reinstate a utility board. The politicians should in no way be involved in the operations and decision making processes of the utility system.

Several factors give substantial reason to be concerned about what was annually selected the finest utility operation in Alabama. Serious charges were levied by the Alabama Department of Environmental Management in 2014 regarding mismanagement at the Phenix City wastewater treatment plant. The city was fined, these violations never reported to the public. E-coli and fecal coliform have been deposited into the Chattahoochee River, Mill Creek and Holland Creek. The city has verified these leaked seepages by posting warning signs. Deteriorating lines are in dire need of replacement. The Phenix City utility system has serious problems which should be addressed by an independent and qualified utility board

This story was originally published February 28, 2017 at 1:59 PM with the headline "‘Resistance’? Seriously?."