THE OPEN FORUM

I write this letter in response to James P. Carter of Marysville, who recently commented on the horrendous statements made by a White House staffer regarding Senator John Mccain.

I cannot help but wonder if Mr. Carter was a gymnast in his younger days. His flexibility – the way he has managed to bend and twist reality, reason, and moral integrity to suit his own political ideology – is nothing short of Olympicworthy.

In all my years (admittedly less than 72), I had never seen someone claim, with a straight face, that an individual who commits a heinous and reprehensible act is less culpable, less deserving of scorn, than the person who brings that heinous act to the public’s attention. To me, and to most reasonable folks, that would be unconscionable. We don’t punish people for telling the truth. And we certainly don’t punish people for telling the truth about objectively immoral acts occurring at the highest levels of our government.

But Mr. Carter is right about one thing: the staffer who said those things about Senator Mccain, a war hero dying from cancer, should absolutely be fired. Now. . . who might have the power to do something like that? Oh, that’s right, the President of the United States. So, by Mr. Carter’s own words, President Trump should have fired this staffer immediately upon hearing what had happened. Is that what occurred? No. Not even close. So what now, Mr. Carter?

From an objectively moral perspective, here is how the hierarchy of reprehensibility should shake out in this situation. In first (worst) place, is the staffer who made the comment. In second place is the President, who refused to hold the staffer accountable for her objectionable behavior by immediately firing her. And in no place, not even making the podium in this race to the moral bottom, is the person who reported the staffer’s reprehensible comment.

But in Mr. Carter’s world, the champion, the one most deserving of our disdain, is the individual who reported the staffer’s comments. Second place goes to the heartless staffer. And in no place, not even making the podium, is the President. Indeed, according to Mr. Carter, the only person capable of holding this staffer accountable for her misdeeds appears to bear no ultimate responsibility.

In life, in law, in a democracy, objectivity is important. Without it, we cannot progress as a society because we cannot agree on the basic foundational truths upon which more sophisticated systems and institutions are built. The loss of objectivity is what closes lines of communication, sows misunderstanding, and breeds division. It should be avoided at all costs.

It is clear that Mr. Carter has some very strong feelings about the President. But what’s clearer is the fact that Mr. Carter’s ability to be objective has been totally compromised by some internal force connected with this administration. Maybe that force is infatuation. Maybe it’s love. Maybe it’s idolatry. Whatever it is, it isn’t healthy.

Brad Westmoreland

I highly oppose the new Yuba City garbage transfer station. I live in the vicinity of the new location and WILL NOT put up with any byproducts of this new location!! Someone needs to take a strong hard look at the affects this will have on family’s in and around this location!! From roads to housing values dropping!

You WILL hear from us!

Paul Bryan