Divine intervention
What is going on in our world?
Word of God, Speak:
2 Timothy 3:1-3 “But understand this, that in the last days there will come times of stress. For people will love only themselves and their money; they will be proud and boastful, sneering at God ... and sneer at those who try to be good.”
Matthew. 24:12-13 “There will be such an increase of the sin of lawlessness that those whose hearts once burned with passion for God and others will grow cold. But hold your hope firmly to the end and you will experience life and deliverance.”
1 Thessalonians 4:16-18 “For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first. Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord. Wherefore comfort one another with these words.”
2 Peter 3:8-10 “But don’t forget this, dear friends, that a day or a thousand years from now is like tomorrow to the Lord. He isn’t really being slow about his promised return, even though it sometimes seems that way. But he is waiting, for the good reason that he is not willing that any should perish, and he is giving more time for sinners to repent. The day of the Lord is surely coming.”
Julia Long
Lewiston
Trump launched withdrawal
As early as 2011, Donald Trump perceived Afghanistan as just another “shithole” country whose people weren’t worth saving. He used the same insults as he used for the Mexicans when he warned that some of the Afghan evacuees were “criminal rapists” and terrorists in disguise.
In 2018, Stephen Miller, Trump’s adviser on immigration and former aide to racist Sen. Jeff Sessions, stunned cabinet officials as he talked about Afghan refugees: “What do you guys want? A bunch of Iraqs and ‘Stans across the country?”
The result was that special visas for Afghan interpreters were stalled, and the Biden administration was faced with a huge backlog of applications.
H.R. McMaster, Trump’s second national security adviser, stated that Secretary of State Mike Pompeo “signed a surrender agreement with the Taliban. The Taliban didn’t defeat us. We defeated ourselves.”
On Nov. 11, 2020, Trump, with the advice of only one Pentagon official — Col. Douglas MacGregor — signed an order to withdraw all troops from Afghanistan by Jan. 15. The top brass were furious, and they managed to extend the date to May 1.
Col. MacGregor now gives full support to Biden’s decision: “Bravo. Well done. Get out. This has been an enormous waste of time, money, resources and blood.”
Still, Biden could have extended the pullout date to Dec.31, which would have given him more time for the withdrawal of American civilians and the Afghans who served us so faithfully for 20 years.
Nick Gier
Moscow
Time for a divorce?
Regarding Sarah Silverman’s recent remarks: If we can’t agree about vaccines, our nation might as well get divorced.
At the hospital where my brother’s wife works, a provider is being forced to step down for declining the vaccine. That provider is well-respected and cares for the patients. Some of the hospital staff are angry with him for not complying, partially because of the burden faced by so many being forced to leave, but probably also because the conviction of someone they respect runs contrary to and calls into question the choices they have made. We are social creatures. Choices made for agreeability make sense.
Beyond that we are sovereign beings with the freedom to assemble as we choose.
Without severing the nation-state as a whole, Silverman has a point: Schools for those who want to be vaccinated could be taught by the vaccinated. Hospitals for those who want to be vaccinated could care for vaccinated patients. For those who are not interested or unconvinced, we can have schools and hospitals with doctors and teachers whose conscience tells them not to comply with the mandates.
In more rural regions, floors could be separated. Then we can continue to live within our rights and continue being allies as Americans.
Problem is: If you deny people the right to follow their conscience, you might as well deny them air to breathe. This is their life and, right or wrong, the choice is theirs. A conscience means everything, yet is nothing without free will.
Christopher Rousseau
Clarkston
Misses the old days
I enjoyed this year’s Hot August Nights and the auto show and shine. I’ve missed the good old days where the drunks would get in a fight, and people would burn rubber all the way up Main Street and back.
But what I really miss was when the Lewiston policeman drove a motorcycle through a store window.
Those were the good old days.
Robert M. Whitlock
Lewiston
