The Top Two Of The Top Ten Things I Want In A President

Recently the Register ran a “Letter to the Editor” I wrote entitled “Ten Attributes We Need in a President.” They were in no particular order and were bi-partisan in nature.

Here they are as listed:

• Be honest.
• Have empathy.
• Put your ego on hold.
• Do not engage in or support “Fake News”
• Respect the “Rule of Law”
• Work across both aisles in Congress
• Respect government employees, many who put their lives on the line for the country
• Work with other country’s to insure hunger and wars are high priorities to reduce and eliminate
• Pay attention to the big two issues that can destroy the world – climate change and nuclear war
• Just be a good person

That said, so why am I reprinting it here? The answer is simple.

As I read the newspaper in the cold darkness of the morning the other day, I kept running across a number of similar headlines. The first was the front-page story entitled “Bracing For Deportation.” It was about a Salvadorian family named Rodriguez who came here because they were granted temporary status after a major earthquake in their home country. They own a business in Des Moines, pay taxes and generally contribute to the economy and society.

As we know from the news, El Salvador is still a mess with gangs controlling much of the country. The last thing the family wants is to go back. The Rodriguez family is just a small example of thousands of working families in this country that are facing deportation by the Trump administration.

Another smaller article was entitled “U.S. plans to cut money to U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees.” No empathy here. A third stated police were investigating KKK flyers found in a neighborhood. What does that article have to do with the ten things I want in a President? It is that the President sets the tone of right and wrong in the country.

Finally, there were two editorials speaking about Dr. Martin Luther King Day. That day, more then most, speaks about what kind of country we want and what we should aspire to be.

As I read the various articles I thought back to my list of 10 attributes and concluded the most important numbers were 2 and 10 together. Above all else, we need a person in the oval office that exemplifies who we should be or at least try to become, as individuals, as a group and as a country, in the treatment of others. Without those core values, it doesn’t seem to me we can really address the other stuff.

For a least 70 plus years, since WWII, we have been the “Light of the World,” exemplified by our presidents, both Democrat and Republican. The past individuals may not have manifested some of the other criteria, but I believe they all met the top two on my list, until now. I will quote the current President by the term he sometimes closes a Twitter comment with – “sad.”

by Dick Goodson
Posted 1/24/17