THE ABSURD
A guy by the name of Steve Witkoff, as an envoy from our administration, was sent to St. Petersburg to retrieve an American who has been in a Russian prison for four years. Mr. Witkoff, upon receiving the American prisoner, proclaims that Putin is a humanitarian.
A statement such as this can only be made with the belief that the American public doesn't know anything. Unfortunately this belief is correct. When one gets one's news from facebook or some such source, one does not know anything. One may think they know something, but they do not. This situation of not knowing you don't know anything is worse than simply not knowing.
I would suggest that many of the citizens of our republic who may be aware of the event of which I am speaking do not know what St. Petersburg is nor understand the term "envoy" nor "humanitarian". The cause of this event (the prisoner's release and praise of Putin) is again the coming election. It is another effort to obtain votes for the current reigning party (not the Republican Party, but the Trump party). Putin has done a favor for Trump just in time to find more votes.
And as I refer to "Putin", I suspect that most Americans may have heard the name now and again on TV, or seen it while surfing the internet, but are not sure what or who he is. You simply can not have a functioning democracy when the citizens of the country don't know anything.
Calling Putin a humanitarian actually goes beyond the absurd. If anyone can find a word to appropriately describe it, please advise. He is in charge of a country where if you disagree with the official position, off to Siberia you go. The man has invaded another country because the people of that other country may make unacceptable ideas available to Russian citizens which they should not be privy to. And worse, he is responsible for more than a million dead and injured by invading this neighbouring country.
To call a man a humanitarian who is the opposite of a humanitarian, and worse, as a public announcement from a high ranking member of our administration is more than absurd, it is dangerous. The current administration has the opinion that the American public knows nothing of what is happening in the world, nor why, nor how it affects them now or in the future. Unfortunately, the administration is correct - we don't.
Reading this you might say that I am pessimistic. I am. I don't see how we can continue to have a democratic republic the way we are going. It will break. If not tomorrow, fifty years from now. You visit with people you are acquainted with. Few make any effort to know or care what is happening on the planet as long as it doesn't have an immediate affect on them or their family. This is unfortunate.
Richard E H Phelps II
Mingo
