The Writer's Life 3/31 - Points

Seth Lipsky devotes his op-ed piece in today's New York Post to a surprising circumstance. He lauds Drew Faust, president of Harvard University, who delivered a speech at West Point praising the military, which once would have been unthinkable from Ivy League leadership. “A supreme honor” is the phrase she used last week to describe what it meant to stand on the Academy's hallowed ground. It’s no coincidence that Faust seized the day. She’s the great-granddaughter of a West Point graduate, Lawrence Davis Tyson, who appeared in arms against Geronimo. Faust clearly has a profound admiration for her famous forebear, whose brigade in World War I took terrible casualties in breaching the Hindenburg Line. Tyson ended up in the US Senate. Faust also said: “...the military is the last institution in which Americans have high confidence. Not organized religion, not government, not newspapers, not banks — you. You and all you represent. We need you, now more than ever.” Kudos, madam. As Lipsky suggested, maybe she should be running for President.

Now that the smoke has cleared, it seems the incident in which a Trump security agent tugged at a woman's arm is much ado about nothing. Two former charges from my high school football coaching days who work security weighed in on the issue on Facebook, and said the woman was lucky she didn't suffer far worse. The guy who posted the message had recently run an anti-Republican rant, so I'm glad he was able to look at this latest fiasco objectively. As for Trump's commentary on abortion, it's high risk, as roughly 50% of the population either supports it or does not want to think about what it entails. He has given his detractors, especially feminists, plenty of ammo. Then again, if he hadn't said anything they would likely conjure faults. He will be ambushed by the media and protesters at every opportunity and needs to be smarter. After all, he is dubbed a racist although he fought heated opposition to have his Florida country club open to minorities, and did not oppose his daughter's marriage to an Orthodox Jew. I will say this again. I am as skeptical of Trump as I am of any politician, but he represents the unknown in this election. Everyone knows what America will get from Sanders or Clinton -- more government intrusion in citizens' lives. And establishment Republicans have failed miserably to curtail government's reach. Cruz is an outsider, but, were he to be elected, it would be one of the biggest upsets of all-time. And Kasich's only chance is a brokered convention, which risks dividing the party, setting it back at the national level for years. As I've also said, the demographics at the national level strongly favor Democrats. A lot will have to break right for the GOP to gain the White House. And the only candidate who might threaten those demographics is Trump. Of course, I've been wrong many times about so many issues. The most discouraging and painful aspects of this cycle may be the posts from friends who support Hillary, who I believe embodies all that is wrong with politics. I resist the temptation to comment. I'll restrict my opinions to this blog and the voting booth. There aren't many advantages to getting older, but one is that I likely won't be around to see the demise of this great country. I am no longer confident it won't happen. The floating book shop had a visit from Mountain Man today, and he, in his typically bleak assessment, said: "We are past the point of no return."

My thanks to the four kind folks who bought paperbacks today, all by Danielle Steel.

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