Letter To The Editor
I bought my first car in 1967 from the Ford garage in Pelican. It in the back of the lot and the whopping price tag of one hundred dollars. That was a princely sum when your income was derived from hauling bales and trapping gophers. When Dad looked it over, he noticed a wet spot under the transmission. I was too busy looking at the cool white-wall tires. Dad commented on the ticking noise in the engine but I was occupied listening to the radio and thinking how awesome it would be dragging main on Friday night. Dad pointed out that the bottom of the engine was coated with oil. I didn't hear that because I was so enamored with the outstanding twotone paint job. In spite of Dad's misgivings, the purchase was made. Needless to say, things did not turn out well. In addition to consuming oil and transmission fluid like a thirsty camel drinking water in the desert, my one-hundred -dollar beauty could only muster ten miles to a gallon of gas. I ran out of gas so often on the way to school that I had my own special chair in Principal Jim Hill's office. It caused me great pain to admit that Dad had been right. But I finally sold this money sucking machine at a loss. I had to haul a lot more bales but finally had enough money to buy a '61 Chevy Biscayne. It had a six cylinder, no chrome, and could easily have been mistaken for a piece of farm machinery, but what it lacked in beauty it made up for with functionality.
Four years ago a minority of the American voting public was evidently caught up in the "charm" of a reality television snake oil salesman. After four years, ignorance of what we are getting is no longer an excuse. Trump flippantly said that the twohundred thousand dead from Covid 19 "is what it is." He is what he is. There is no longer hope that he will mature and grow into the office. There is a reason why he is adored by white nationalist hate groups. His "bromance" with Putin and Kim Jung Un would be considered bizarre if it were not so dangerous to the U.S. Our most honored citizens, military personnel, are called losers and suckers. His juvenile name calling would not be tolerated by a Kindergarten teacher. Many of my extended family were Republicans.
They would have never tolerated this abomination who now occupies our Oval Office. This immoral narcissist is destroying a once noble party.
Our mother would have called him a "mean man." Dad would have simply called him a fool. We can do so much better. As I learned with my first car, it is hard to admit a mistake.
On November third we have a chance to get it right.
Jerry Ness PRHS class of 1968 Nome, ND