Editor,
Dear Europe: Please accept my heartfelt apology as an American citizen for inflicting Donald Trump upon you these past several days. Let me assure you that his cringe-worthy words and actions do not represent the feelings of the majority of those he ostensibly represents.
We are as appalled as you that a man who has lavished praise on international thugs would verbally alienate our nation’s staunchest allies. Your leaders — Angela Merkel, Emmanuel Macron, Theresa May — bore Trump’s repeated attacks on the world stage with the kind of class that continually eludes our own president.
One of our most fundamental rights as Americans is freedom of speech. But our rights were always intended to be exercised with responsibility. Words – especially on the national and international level — should be thoughtful and measured, not stream-of-consciousness dumps.
Words truly do matter.
When Ronald Reagan uttered, “Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!” he confronted a serious issue, threw down a challenge and ultimately inspired the dismantling of the Berlin Wall.
Those six words changed history but contain no personal insults, assign no blame, and make it clear there is no room for further excuses. Most importantly, the leadership behind those words achieved its desired goal — unity rather than continued division.
Donald Trump, on the other hand, appears incapable of rhetoric beyond that of exaggeration, bombast and periodic outright lies. His Friday statement that Prime Minister May was doing a “fantastic job” directly contradicted his Thursday verbal trashing of her.
He then polished off the entire debacle by labelling press reports of his about-face as “fake news.”
And so, Europe, I once again apologize on behalf of the majority of Americans who did not give Donald Trump the popular vote, and thank you for your forbearance in putting up with our misguided head of state.
Assure yourselves – as so many of us do — that this regrettable period in our collective histories will eventually pass.
Jean Looff,
Coupeville
