LETTER: Op-ed column ‘misleading’

Op-ed column ‘misleading’
Are we the generation to lose our freedom, as President Reagan suggested? Dave Ball, in his July 31 op-ed, implies we may be. Indicators are this sitting president is hastening that loss.
Ongoing efforts to discredit elections, 2016 and 2020, are meant to be divisive and generate doubt. No evidence exists to prove mail-in votes are fraudulent or more cumbersome than waiting in lines.
Describing Mr. Ball’s comments, two adjectives apply: deliberately misleading and dishonest. Both are scary when applied to government. Attributing action to a single individual besides the president is ridiculous. There are two houses of Congress, 535 men and women; only they (plural) can make laws. “Hysterical” thinking encourages finding villains in the solo congressional members. A bait and switch technique in politics or flinging lots of mud?
The term “scorching” to define the energy dilemma is appropriately applied to our climate’s direction. Renewable energy must be our future resource and using it is dependent upon millions of engineers, technicians, laborers and office personnel. Better options than wood burning fireplaces and kerosene lamps were needed and found. It’s called progress.
Guns? Who needs AR-15 and AK-47s? These are weapons to kill multiple people swiftly, not groundhogs. There was unanimity in 1791 that a well-armed militia was needed. When the Second Amendment was adopted, soldiers had muskets and powder horns.
The tape about Joe Biden defunding police is a sloppy splice job. The original question is, “Do you support police reform?” The answer: “Absolutely.” The split screen disconnect indicates the patch.
Criminals in our midst? This president hurries to pardon guilty cronies and routinely tries to manipulate the Justice Department. Gaffes? Too numerous to mention without reading his teleprompter. But Donald Trump pontificating about medicine is dangerous.
Feigned lack of information is a strategy to distract, dominate and redirect; it is purposefully lying to control news. Trained expert psychologists identify mental issues worsening in this man. We should worry.
The possible Democratic hell cannot be less frightening than the present unchecked pandemic with uncontrolled illness and death. Trump promises and declares again and again there is adequate testing and hospitals have supplies, yet health care workers struggle with shortages. We still watch medical personnel reuse once sterile masks or buy their own. Unthinkable. We also watch the economy dip into a recession. homelessness accelerate, the destruction of public education and increasing food lines.
Mr. Ball thinks the present is not scary? The population of Washington County is about 206,000. To date, 159,000 people have lain in body bags, 180,000 deaths are projected by August’s end. Fall virus counts will combine with “just the flu” numbers – 34,000 last season – and how many more the virus sickens.
Do the math, Mr. Ball, while the president plays golf.
Virginia Acciai
Washington