Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes wrote in an unanimous opinion that “The most stringent protection of free speech would not protect a man falsely shouting fire in a theater and causing a panic.” So, why do we have to suffer Jon Buss’ unlettered, sophomoric, reckless, sky-is-falling hysterical Twitter ramblings ad nauseum (“Biden’s First Year is an All-around Failure”, published March 16)?
A presidential candidate pledging to nominate someone of a certain demographic to the Supreme Court is not unprecedented. Reagan and Trump both announced beforehand they would nominate a woman. And, white males haven’t exactly been locked out of the Supreme Court… or locked out of anything else in this country.
Presidents are not omnipotent. Reagan had a 35 percent approval rating during the 1980s recession. George W. Bush left office having overseen two recessions and left us an economic mess. Obama fails to receive credit for bailing out the banking mortgage industry, two automakers, for implementing affordable healthcare insurance, and for avenging 9/11. Worse, Biden inherited an “American Carnage” toilet paper presidency that brought this country to its knees. Biden is dealing with an oppositional Republican party that would rather see Biden fail than for us to prosper.
Contrary to what Republicans will have you believe, skyrocketing gasoline prices (the U.S. imports only 3.5 percent of its oil from Russia, according to Forbes Magazine) and empty shelves are due to a combination of the pandemic, disruptions in the supply and demand economics and likely due to corporate gouging and greed. Let’s be sure to check the oil companies’ next quarterly reports for proof of this.
Why do illegal immigrants risk their lives to cross into the United States? Immigrants at the southern border are “tired, poor, yearning to breathe free.” They too want to see “the lighted lamp beside the golden door!” How is it that these illegal immigrants are landing jobs that most Americans refuse to do, like picking produce, restaurant cooking and cleaning, housekeeping, meat packing, caring for the elderly and, yes, working in Trump’s resorts. Who does Jon think is helping to facilitate the supply of food in the grocery stores and restaurants we enjoy? Who is taking care of our elderly parents and relatives in nursing homes? And who is hiring them? We should all be thankful that immigrants — legal and illegal — are filling a demand.
Immigrants are the least of our worries. Scapegoating illegal immigrants and xeonophobia is nothing but a ploy to obscure real problems, like unnecessary tax breaks for the uber rich, federal debt/spending, domestic terrorism, the sustained epidemic gun violence here and like nowhere else, restrictions to the right to vote, corporate debt to China and the lack of adequate healthcare for the poor.
Jon needs to stop yelling “fire” to get attention. This newspaper should not be used as Jon’s personal Twitter account. Jon’s misguided panic-inducing letters cheapens the quality of this publication so much that I will cancel my subscription posthaste if I have to suffer reading another letter by him.
Stanley McKie
Enumclaw
