Stephen Gottlieb

Let’s do some comparison.

There were two animating ideas to the Trump/MAGA campaign. They claimed that America was number 1 and should stay that way.

Office workers regularly ask me when I was born. I typically respond that I have no memory of being born and ask if they do. It’s all hearsay – whatever our parents told us.

You frequently hear people say we can’t do that because there’s no money – nothing in the budget, nothing available. I think it’s important to understand that’s nonsense.

Off to a meeting in Washington, I slipped and fell in a D.C. hotel over a month ago, breaking my left femur. The ambulance took me to the hospital where President Reagan was treated after being shot by a would-be assassin.

Some of those who call themselves conservatives don’t seem to want to share the country with a portion of us who have grown up thinking we are all American.

What’s going on with the freedom of speech and the right to attack the policies or behavior of those in charge?

The Old Testament commands we treat our neighbors as ourselves for we were strangers in the land of Egypt. I see too little respect for that biblical command honored both here and abroad, but I wish good people everywhere a happy, healthy, peaceful New Year.

Those who wrote and ratified the Constitution sometimes called its protections “parchment barriers” – meaning the paper and words on it couldn’t do much unless people supported it.

Some people like to fly the flag claiming we are no. 1, the greatest. But nations, like companies, are what they do, not what they were. I’ve traveled in many places that cherish memories of dominance, from the Persian to the Aztec empires, and now hang on by their toenails and the forbearance of others.