Trump was elected, anonymous writer was not
If the senior government official who anonymously penned an op-ed in The New York Times was attempting to reassure me, he failed. President Trump has one thing going for him that this nameless author doesn’t: He was elected. While I fully agree with the picture, painted in both the op-ed and Bob Woodward’s new book, of our president as an amoral, insecure, unintelligent man-child, he is the leader the people chose. To seize his reins of power, whatever one’s reason or intention, is a coup d’etat, plain and simple. Worse, it’s an anonymous one. How are we to hold anyone accountable for whatever happens? And why should I believe this person’s privately held agenda is any safer for America than Trump’s buffoonery? For better or worse, Trump is the chief executive, and our democracy is not served by making it impossible to tell which decisions are his, and which are made by an unelected, unidentified cabal of self-appointed “adults.”
ROBERT WOLFSON, MARIETTA
Bipartisan work needed on climate change
Fires, hurricanes, smoke, floods, and high winds of karmic forces teach us the lesson of ignoring nature. Will we respond in time? The article, “Governors, mayors, business execs begin climate summit” (News, Sept. 12) describes the dilemma. Can cities and local governments really do enough to meet the Paris climate accord’s goal of reducing greenhouse emissions? California has taken redemptive steps by passing legislation targeting a 100 percent clean energy goal by 2045. I was born in 1953; perhaps before I die, I will see an eco-balanced world economy emerge. But how will we get there? By conservatives, centrists and liberals working hard, together, on the national level to incentivize clean energy options and stop paying the burdensome price of fossil fuels. The first step is to vote for representatives and executives who will create and execute policies recognizing the need to stop fossil-fuel addiction.
BOB JAMES, ATLANTA
