To The Editor:
In the Thursday, May 23, 2019 issue of The Dillon Herald, Bishop Michael Goings titled his column, “Will Our Democracy Survive?” I respect him, read his columns, and am interested in topics that mainly focus on his personal remembrances, celebrated people in this community, local socio-political and educational issues, and the influential role of religion in his life. However, this most recent column begs a response because it addresses the current political turmoil dangerously polarizing Americans. His column reemphasizes the primary, coordinated talking points of our mainstream media and the apparently impotent, incompetent politicians of the party that does not currently occupy this nation’s White House.
In my opinion, a better title for this column would have been,”Will Our Democracy Survive the Surge of Democratic Socialism?” Firstly, in his introductory paragraphs, Mr. Goings writes of having watched an episode of “The Wild Kingdom.” He then makes a comparison between what he saw on that program and what he sees happening in Washington, D.C. and in our nation today. He watched two male giraffes in a territorial fight unknowingly being observed by a pride of lions hidden in the undergrowth. Mr. Goings offers that scene as an analogy for our present political debacle. That would be a flawed analogy attempting to illustrate America’s faltering, fractured two-party system locked in an increasingly intense contest for the losing party to regain its control by whatever means.
In television’s “The Wild Kingdom,” the two male giraffes, the same species, are in a natural struggle for control of their territory. (Nature’s evidence to support the Left’s theory of “Toxic Masculinity”?) In America’s ongoing political circus, the two major parties have quite obviously become “two different ‘animals’.” From what I have seen and heard, I am not sure now that Democrats and Republicans even share the same DNA! From what I have seen and heard for many months, most recently during the Kavanaugh hearings, this clash of the parties has now become a vicious attack by “a pack of dogs” upon innocent, yet not unsuspecting, “prey.”
Secondly, Mr. Goings would have better served this reader had he offered some modicum of a common sense solution to the political dilemma that now affects, or infects, our country. He does not. Instead, he references the problems that have plagued America for decades, if not centuries, but he does not mention the many advances this country has made even during my own lifetime, as well as the advances achieved by the current occupant of The White House and his appointed Cabinet. I know well the problems still troubling this country today, undeniably the greatest country on earth, yet I also know well the problems that we, the American people, have solved…together.
Thirdly, I now hear ominous warnings that our prospering society founded upon Judeo-Christian principles stands dangerously close to the precipice of what could result in the orchestrated destruction of our constitutional democratic republic by a dark force from within. The Socialist Radical Left has raised its ugly head, one filled with ignorance of American history and our Constitution, hate, inhumanity, and the increasing evidence of mental disorders. Today, in the United States, the seed of socialism has been planted. nurtured, and allowed to take root and grow. If left unchecked, it will become a systemic poison that will destroy the time-honored principles established and defended by the citizens of this great nation. For proof of this socialistic destruction, look south to our neighbor, Venezuela. Ten years ago, Venezuela was a beautiful, prosperous democratic nation–once a jewel in the crown of the western hemisphere but now another failed socialist experiment that has been reduced to a social, financial, and political heap of rubble. To witness this destruction closer to home, schedule a self-guided tour through the major cities of California or through the streets of once-thriving but currently depressed/destroyed American cities. Warnings: Watch where you step! Be prepared for what you’ll see!
Fourthly, I soundly reject Mr. Goings’s offensive characterizations of President Donald Trump–all talking points of the radical left and by the talking-heads of main-stream media–and by his reference to me and other Trump supporters as “hostages” of “an habitual liar,” “a misogynist,” and someone who “does not need God to forgive him of anything.” For starters, I am no one’s “hostage” by anyone’s definition. Next, I would like to see the documented proof substantiating any claims that President Trump suffers from (1) some “habitual lying syndrome” and (2) his purported misogyny. I do not know that such proofs exist. Furthermore, in reference to his last comment about the President’s lack of faith in God and of his having no need for God’s forgiveness, I DO know that President Trump has seldom hesitated at his multiple appearances to call upon God, to ask for His blessings upon individuals and upon those communities and nations in distress, and, although considered politically incorrect by many, he openly declares to the world, “God Bless America!” I honestly believe that, when God blesses our nation, He consequently blesses the less fortunate nations of His world.
Finally, the United States seems headed toward a dangerous socialist-manufactured storm–threatening to pull this great country into a downward spiral that would lead to the destruction of all that we have created, all that we love, and all that we protect as the God-given rights for ALL Americans. The 2016 election process produced a maelstrom of deceit, conceit, and, as we are now just learning, nefarious maneuvers by “back-room politicians.” None of us can merely LOOK at what is happening around us and not SEE it for what it portends to be.
Take a coin from your pocket, Mr. Goings, and give it a good spin on a polished tabletop. Watch the flat spinning coin become a spherical blur. The spinning coin will slow down, but, unlike some who choose to straddle an issue and not supply a concrete common sense solution, it will NOT stop and remain balanced on its EDGE! No, it will finally stop, drop, and lie there revealing only one of its two sides, “heads” or” tails.” On Tuesday, November 8, 2016, something happened. For the dedicated supporters of the Republican presidential candidate, Donald J. Trump, it miraculously came up “heads,” the side that proudly proclaims, “In God We Trust,” the sacred trust of millions of Americans.
Millions of Americans and I shall always trust in God and shall continue to trust in President Donald Trump.
With all due respect,
Gerald M. Berry
P.O. Box 52
Hamer, SC
God Bless America