Janus is appropriate
It is fitting that presidents are inaugurated in January, a month named for Janus, the Roman god of beginnings and endings. But in Donald Trump’s case, the fit is even better because Janus was also the god of entrances and exits, and Trump’s obsession with stopping illegal entries and enforcing mass exits from the U.S. makes Janus an appropriate symbol.
Even more fitting is the two-faced image of Janus, often located over gates and doors. You won’t find a more two-faced president than Trump, whose wild rants about making Canada a state are quite the opposite from what he has said in the past and from what he says about Mexico, a country he claimed would pay for the wall he promised to build.
“Without borders we can’t have a country,” he’s said often, but he now calls the northern border an “artificial line,” and you don’t hear him threatening to make Mexico a state, which would solve the border problem even as it creates others.
Logical collisions are nothing new with Trump, and there are good reasons for maintaining both borders, but I would suggest that one bad reason for his attitude about Mexico is cultural. Of course, Trump would protest this loudly from one face, even as the other face smiles and winks.
But as to what he’s really thinking, only Janus knows.
Mike Ruskovich
Grangeville
Looking at a long session
The first action of the Idaho House of Representatives in 2025, HJM001, sponsored by Rep. Heather Scott, “expresses the Idaho Legislature’s commitment to restoring the definition of marriage as a union between one man and one woman, urging the Supreme Court to reconsider the Obergefell v. Hodges decision and return authority over marriage laws to the states and their citizens.”
Heather Scott has publicly stated that LGBTQ supporters are waging “a war of perversion against our children.” And I suppose she believes this Joint Memorial will bring decency and morality back to Idaho.
Yet, in 2022, when Rep. Aaron von Ehrlinger was accused and ultimately found guilty of raping a 19-year-old legislative intern, Heather Scott was happy to shame and disgrace the intern bringing the allegation. She, along with several of her Republican colleagues said that the intern was a part of a “blatant, liberal smear job.” Does that sound very decent and moral to you?
Heather Scott does not know the difference between decency and injustice to get what she wants. She has no business judging others on their lifestyle choices. Not only is this Joint Memorial a total disgrace to our LGBTQ+ Idahoans, but it also shames our entire state.
Heather, shouldn’t you concentrate on property tax relief and adequately funding public schools? Well, maybe not. After all, last year you spent a significant amount of time worrying about cannibalism. It is going to be a very long session.
Heather Stout
Moscow
