Dear editor:
On April 15, 1912, the RMS Titanic struck an iceberg and sank on her maiden voyage from Southampton, UK to New York City. More than 1,500 lives were lost in the disaster.
The Titanic was considered indestructible, so how could this happen? First, there were countless human errors in failing to act upon warnings communicated to the ship. They truly believed they were too big to fail. Second, icebergs are devilish things. In addition to the dangers visible above the water, the Titanic found out the threats below the water were fatal. We need to revisit lessons learned from that tragedy because the United States of America is headed toward the modern-day equivalent of icebergs.
The dangers that are visible to us are significant enough to be worried. Immigration is a mess. Our economy looks healthy enough but is being undermined by record-breaking inflation. Crime is rampant in our large cities. Elements of Socialism are creeping into many aspects of our government and our lives. Our energy policy is unworkable. Government spending and debt are out of control. Our people have lost confidence in our President and Congress. Our media, once a meaningful check and balance on the effectiveness of our government, has lost all credibility. But there are additional threats lurking beneath the surface.
Weakness in Washington, visible worldwide, has enabled our would-be enemies to become major threats to our way of life. Russia has been emboldened to overtake Ukraine. Don’t think for a minute their imperialism will end there.
China has staked claims to the South China Sea and is preparing to annex Taiwan. Iran has re-emerged as a nuclear threat primarily because the Biden Administration has relaxed our constraints.
Is Israel no longer safe from annihilation? North Korea continues to fester under the rule of a despot. Worse yet, there are indications all these Communist countries are united ideologically to destroy America. Our reaction to these threats has been all talk and little action.
On September 29, 1959, Nikita Khrushchev, Premier of the Soviet Union, gave a landmark speech on Communism. It included a message to the western world, “Your children’s children will live under communism. We will bury you without a shot being fired”.
Like the crew of the Titanic, our leaders have been warned. Their willingness and ability to act are questionable.
Our Democratic-controlled Congress hit an all-time low approval rating of 36 percent in June. Overall, 82 percent of us disapprove of the job Congress is doing. That is even worse than Biden’s disapproval rating of 55 percent. Clearly, neither branch of our Government is doing its job. We need to make real changes, starting with the mid-term elections in November. Get out and vote!
Gerry Giesler