Wasted your chance

Gov. Sarah Sanders, in your response to President Joe Biden’s State of the Union address, giving you a chance to talk about his actions and policy goals, I had sincerely hoped that you would talk about real alternate solutions. It seems that you only wanted to say there’s a “radical left” group who wants to undo everything good in our country. Part of your speech was reminiscent of playground talk: “I am better than you/my way is better than yours/ you are messing this up/etc.”

One simply cannot say that today’s president wants government control instead of freedom, or he destroyed world peace, or he wanted to defund the police in the past, or he refuses to stand up to China, and he is ignoring our southern border, when all evidence points the other way. Solutions to problems are sometimes slow to come to fruition. Most presidents have done their best, including this one.

This is not a failing administration, Governor Sanders! According to Ron Klain, immediate past White House chief of staff, many achievements have been made the past two years, including (with references to past U.S. presidents): passing the largest economic plan since FDR; managing the largest land war in Europe since Harry Truman (and no, there is no good way to get out of a war like that one); passing the largest infrastructure bill since Eisenhower; getting the most signatures on a gun-control bill since Bill Clinton; presenting the largest climate bill of any country in the world; and all the while managing the worst health crisis any president has faced since Woodrow Wilson.

When you resort to phrases like

“CRT,” “racism,” “woke,” and “Latinx,” the real meaning is only understood by a small fraction of people, and has nothing to do with the State of the Union address. Governor, I had hoped that you would rise to this occasion. Sorry you were not able to do that. Does this mean that you are a member of the “radical right” group? CAROL ANN BONE

North Little Rock