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OpEdNews Op Eds    H3'ed 8/16/18

The albatross wrapped around America's neck

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Message Michael Payne

In the tale of the Ancient Mariner, there is an albatross that follows a ship wherever it goes. The sailors consider this bird a sign of good luck. But the ancient mariner, for reasons of his own, shoots and kills the bird. The sailors are horrified and they wrap the dead albatross around the ancient mariner's neck as a form of shame and punishment.

America, unfortunately, has an albatross wrapped around its neck; perhaps a form of punishment for its people's apathy and failure to rise up and speak out against its government when those in the government refuse to do the will of the people.

And it also may be a form of punishment because so many Americans made the colossal mistake of helping the Republican Party and Trump take complete control of this government.

The common interpretation of the phrase "albatross wrapped around one's neck" is, "a heavy burden that prevents one from achieving success." That's exactly what is happening in our country. This albatross is representative of the GOP and Donald Trump, a heavy burden that prevents America from propelling itself into the 21st Century.

That's why we see no positive and constructive actions being taken and a total lack of creativity and innovative thinking. This is a political party and a president who are caught up in a state of negativity, divisiveness, and destructiveness.

The best and the brightest Americans have no inclination to enter into this country's thoroughly corrupted political system, one in which they would have to continually beg for campaign contributions and then do the bidding of those donors. They see a contaminated Congress and want no part of it.

So, absent the best of Americans, this country has to settle for the likes of Donald J. Trump,

America should have a president who provides it with strong, visionary leadership and a dogged determination to attack and solve this nation's many problems; but that's not the case. Trump has no time to attack these problems because he is very busy attacking his legions of enemies.

What he needs to do, but he won't, is to shove his Twitter account aside and at least attempt to communicate with the American people in the way that presidents Roosevelt, Eisenhower, and Kennedy did. They knew how to connect with the people and it enhanced their presidencies.

When is the last time that we have seen a U.S. president carry out a foreign policy agenda in which he goes out of his way to alienate our most loyal European and UK nations, and their leaders? We need to establish even greater ties with them, not drive them away.

He can't seem to get along with his fellow leaders, those in France, Germany, the UK, and other Euro countries. He turned the G7 conference into a big bust and then made a pathetic appearance in the UK where he didn't' bring even the slightest degree of diplomacy with him.

Starting a trade war is totally misguided thinking; No one ever wins that kind of war. He threatened to place tariffs against the Euro countries but backed off quickly when he became aware that.they would strongly retaliate with tariffs of their own.

He criticized NATO and accused other member nations of not contributing their fair share of the expenses of that organization. He sounds like he would like very much to withdraw from this organization, just as he withdrew the U.S. from the Iranian Nuclear Agreement and the Paris Climate Accord.

We badly need a president who will strive to unite the people of this country, who will heal the wounds that exist between different elements of our society. These deep divisions must be reversed. But we see none of that happening. We see a president who appears to be determined to divide this country even further.

He is creating a racial and ethnic divide in America. His veiled and sometimes direct statements about other races and ethnic groups are causing more and more resentment by those who are his targets, namely African Americans, Hispanics, and Muslims. White supremacy anyone?

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