Letters: National anthem + Trump’s tax cuts + Election results + Haiku

National anthem

Re “Remove ‘The Star-Spangled Banner’ as national anthem, California NAACP urges” (sacbee.com, Nov. 7): Tell me I just didn’t hear that someone wants to do away with our national anthem. A third verse was cited as being discriminatory. How many people know that there is a third verse? I didn’t. Nobody ever sings more than the first verse. That’s the only verse most of us know. First, the kids playing professional sports insult people who fought and died, and are still fighting and dying, by not standing for the anthem. Now there are those who are augmenting that insult. Keep in mind that Saturday is Veterans Day. Don’t dishonor the memories of those brave men and women.

Trump’s tax cuts

Re “Ralph Northam’s Virginia win is a balm for jittery Democrats” (sacbee.com, Nov. 8): President Donald Trump plays to his base supporters with his words, but his actions and agenda do not favor them. Has this base of voters clamored for tax restructuring that favors the rich and corporate America, making pre-existing condition health care coverage optional, and supersizing the national debt? Obviously not. Base stalwarts need to sift through his tweets and rhetoric to see that he is undermining them and lining his own pockets, and the pockets of the upper 1 percenters, at the expense of Americans. If his tax records were released as promised, it would become crystal clear that he is playing the long con. Tuesday’s election results hopefully signify America’s wake-up call to the deceitful tax and budget proposals championed by our president and his congressional enablers.

Blameless?

Donald Trump takes no responsibility for the disappointing Republican results in state and local elections on Nov. 7. He had few supportive words for candidates who lost and quickly blamed them for their campaign choices. Trump places no value in expanding Republican support and behaves as if he wants to shrink future votes from people who lean toward conservative principles. His “I alone” creed may have been a boast about his confidence to succeed, but has become a description of his inability to build a winning team, leaving him isolated. People tend to rally around a leader who can share accomplishments and jointly learn from failure. Conversely, Trump shuns team work and has no sense to improve given his false self-image of perfection. He fails to build and can only dismantle.

A little haiku

Re “Light shows, food business incubator and Trump film set to receive city grants” (sacbee.com, Nov. 6): The city of Sacramento says it will spend $500,000 to promote, among other things, haiku. Here is mine:

Haiku is tranquil

The quiet soul of Japan

We are cacophony.

I now await a check from the city manager for my share of this frivolous cash outlay.

 

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This story was originally published November 10, 2017 at 5:00 AM with the headline "Letters: National anthem + Trump’s tax cuts + Election results + Haiku."