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Articles by Karin Morris
4 years later: Has America become great again?
Believing that each legally elected president should have his or her chance to grow into this difficult job, I waited and watched how the Trump presidency would evolve. Instead of thoughtful deliberation, of listening to experienced advisers, of governing with a calm tone encouraging unity to our divided nation, I alarmingly watched the further splitting of our country and the chaos created in our politics. Countries seldom get a president who can fulfill promises made.
Republicans: Cult-like attraction to Trump | Tacoma News Tribune
Out of 249 congressional Republicans recently polled by The Washington Post, only 27 acknowledge Joe Biden’s victory in last month’s election. This despite repeated recounts, lost lawsuits and acknowledgments by election officials that this election was fair and one of the safest so far. What’s with these people? They seem to be in a cult-like adherence to an enigmatic leader who has an iron grip on them. Democracy is at stake here.
Virus: Federal spin job keeps America confused
“CDC pressured to change reports on coronavirus,” (TNT, 9/13). It is shocking and almost unbelievable to read that those close and loyal to the president ask the CDC to either scuttle or spin more positively their scientific findings. This in order not to undermine the president. What about undermining us? Not giving us the reality of the situation and constantly sugarcoating it, and withholding vital information, confuses us. We don’t see the real picture. And the virus lives on and on.
Statues: Destroy history? No, learn from it
We see statues being torn down everywhere, not with any forethought, but rather out of justified anger over past deep grievances. It’s understandably calling attention to wounds of the past. And yet that past is part of our American history, just like the Holocaust is part of Germany’s history, or Stalin’s Gulag is part of Russia’s history, or the Inquisition is part of Spain’s history, and on and on. Most every country has these dark, terrible phases.
America: Questions to help gauge our greatness
So, is America “great again”? After almost four years of this administration? Are we seen as that “shining city on a hill” that President Reagan once referred to? Has racism diminished in our country? Do we have less homeless on our streets? Do we have more people with health insurance? Have our schools improved? Our infrastructure? Is the gap between rich and poor smaller? Are we one of the countries in which the COVID-19 pandemic has a death rate commensurate with our population?
American division: Will we escape our echo chambers?
It is not the presidency any more that constitutes the biggest threat to our country. It is the deep divisiveness we experience currently. Yes, a divisiveness fueled by the current White House, but brought about to a great degree by putting party loyalty over principle. We are so divided, and it’s reflected in our media habits. One part of the population listens only to CBS, NPR, NSNBC etc., and the other swears by Fox News etc.
Trump: America must reject his chaos and division
The impeachment hearings clearly show we are at a crossroads. No matter whether Democrat or Republican, do we really want a person at the top who causes so much chaos and division, and at taxpayer expense? A president who surrounded himself with several people who were indicted due to various illegal actions? Who fights to let us see his tax information? (What is he hiding?) Who tweets without much planning, and who denigrates respected military and government employees during ongoing hearings?
Terrorism: Real destruction is coming from within
This month we remembered the terrible terrorist attacks of 2001. Afterward, President George W. Bush created the Homeland Security Department to prevent another one of these horrible attacks. There has not been much in the news that similar attacks have been planned and prevented. But what has been in the news almost weekly are mass shootings: at Sandy Hook Elementary in 2012, Charleston in 2015, a Florida high school in 2018, Las Vegas in 2018, then Pittsburgh, then El Paso, then Dayton, then ...?
Election hacking: Trump lacks focus for this crisis
How to submit a Letter to the Editor News Tribune editorial page editor Matt Misterek explains the guidelines for submitting a Letter to the Editor to the newspaper. By Up Next News Tribune editorial page editor Matt Misterek explains the guidelines for submitting a Letter to the Editor to the newspaper. By One thing that special counsel Robert Mueller stressed in his recent statement to the media and the public is that Russia definitely interfered with our elections.
Gun reform: New Zealand moves enviably fast
After the recent massacre in New Zealand, that country’s prime minister was able to change its gun laws within six days after the shooting. She outlawed all assault-type weapons immediately. New Zealand’s gun laws are strict. One must pass certain lengthy tests in order to obtain a gun. In a country of 5 million, about 250,000 are legitimate gun owners, predominantly farmers and hunters. “We cannot allow this to happen again,” said Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern.
State testing: Exit exams are overrated
The high school exit test is doing more harm than good. This test is tied to whether students successfully graduate with a diploma or certificate. How one test is worth more than four years of classes is beyond me. The test shows nothing but a snapshot of the student’s grasp of the subject matter. Maybe the student was having a rough week and his or her mind was not on their game. How about transfer students and how exit tests affect them?
Caravan: Dehumanizing migrants is despicable
Recently I heard our president refer to alleged gang members in the so-called immigrant “caravan” as “animals.” Women, children and men are fleeing a country full of violence and poverty, wanting better lives for themselves. Surely there are people in this group who have engaged in criminal acts. Any large group will have a certain percentage of this in it. But to call them “animals” is despicable.
Trump: Time’s up for him to prove worthy of office
I was willing to give our elected president a chance, to wait and see whether he would bring this divided nation together, improve our health system, deal with our gun laws, fairly treat immigrants, our long-time trade partners and our democratic open media. Well, here we are more than a year later, and what do we have? More division at home, quarrels with our trade partners, children being taken from parents who seek shelter in our nation, trade wars.
Potholes: What are extra tax collections paying for?
What is going on with Tacoma’s program to repair our potholed streets? Did we not vote in a tax increase just for this purpose a couple of years ago? On Sixth Avenue from Mildred Street to Highland Hill and beyond, the pavement is full of open splits so deep they contain water . So is the stretch of Mildred between South 12th and Sixth avenues. These are heavily traveled streets, not neighborhood roads.
School shooting: If only Trump's assurance were true
Re: “17 killed in Florida high school shooting,” (TNT, 2/15). Here we go again. Right and left, our children and others are being gunned down, not by foreign terrorists but by homegrown Americans. President Trump’ s address to our children afterward was that there are people “who will do anything at all to protect you.” Anything, except of course challenging our extremely permissive gun laws. That is a no, no, because the gun lobby gives extremely generously to pro-gun candidates.
Civil war: Are we headed for a new one? | The News Tribune
Today, for the first time in my life, I read and heard in the news a discussion of the possibility of civil war. Apparently the hate and divisions in our country have brought historians and other civic-minded people to the contemplation of this possibility. The current president is not bringing us together; instead he fans the flames of this division with his tweets, speeches and denigrations of the free press. How will we come together? What will bring us all to our senses?
Gun violence: How many people must die before change happens? | The News Tribune
In Saturday's paper, readers criticize, bemoan and rationalize gun laws in America. Why is it that we are the country with the highest rate of homicides among other western democracies? Sadly many more people in this country will have to lose their lives in these military-style attacks before we finally come to our senses and demand something serious be done about our love of guns. In the meantime, ho hum, we will have another major shooting in (fill in the blank).
Racism: The real way to take our country back
David Duke and the white supremacist cohort say they're trying to take their country back. Yes, let's take it back. Back to civility, to inclusiveness, to working together for a common good. Not to what the Alt-right exult us to to, with their Nazi slogans, their diatribes against immigrants, their torches and weapons, their misogyny and all the lower instincts, which our president has made OK to express with his speeches and tweets. Civility should keep those lower instincts in us checked.
Election: Why is the GOP so blind? | The News Tribune
Re: “Lock her up talk is worse than locker room talk” (TNT, 10/13).
Election: A vision of America under Trump
Twenty-foot-high walls will encircle our borders. Commerce will decline as countries retaliate with higher import taxes after Donald Trump increases tariffs on other countries like China. Eleven million illegal immigrants will face clandestine raids after they go into hiding from fear of deportation. The U.S., once a country of immigrants, will be gone.Women will be nothing but objects for pleasure, but women who undergo abortions will be punished. Our first lady will be a showpiece, a trophy wife.
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