Be objective about US politics

THE EDITOR, Madam:

In an earlier letter, I encouraged Jamaicans to watch news sources that covered both sides of the political arguments/conflict going on in my country. Similar letters I’ve written received the same attention here in The Gleaner; my compliments.

In those letters I tried not to offer my present assessment of the situation, unlike Bert Samuel’s recent letter published on August 27. I am hesitant to do so, not because I have no opinion on the subject, but because I am no expert, and I don’t see my opinion meaning any more than that of an ordinary man having three fingers of rum with his friends on a Friday night at a local rum shop in St Ann.

Indeed, my opinion as to who is ‘right’ and who is ‘wrong’, or even which political party’s thinking is best for the country, is clear in my own mind, but I don’t think it is appropriate that I try to sell it to others. I will not be a surrogate for some political movement.

Let folks make up their own minds, and though I read Mr Samuel’s letter with great care, I confess that it took me a while to figure out as we say, ‘where he was coming from’. In the end, I had the impression that he thought former President Trump was a criminal.

Mr Samuels, and I hope The Gleaner’s readers, realise that at least half my country believes that Trump is not only innocent. What he’s being charged with are obviously politically-motivated indictments, but the very people charging him are corrupt surrogates.

While the United States is involved in such a controversy, maybe it would be a little more helpful if everyone tried to be a little more objective, and certainly more straightforward. They should try harder to make sure that what they believed was centred in truth, and not eventually find themselves mistaken and so deceived. Either Trump or Biden, or both of them are likely to be lawbreakers – of that there’s little doubt. But to find out which, maybe we should first learn to trust ourselves and make sure we’re seeing both sides of the argument clearly.

If we don’t, we may find ourselves waiting for something that never happens, as in a story I was once told about the first Christian slave converts in Jamaica, so long ago. They were supposedly told that ‘Jesus’ (meaning the name of the boat that brought them there) would soon come and take them home again to Africa. I wonder if all that many folks, like Mr Samuels, will still want to go when it comes?

ED MCKOY

Bokeelia, Florida