It’s OK, The Hole In The Canoe Is On Other End

By: Tim Timmons

Forgive me, but this week is about us . . . the little newspaper industry that could . . . and you.

Let’s start with an old saying: Only a fool believes they’re safe because the hole in the canoe is at the other end.

We got trouble in this country. I’ve borrowed that line from Robert Preston, AKA Prof. Harold Hill a few times over the years. Hard to believe A) we need to keep using it and B) things are worse, perhaps worse than ever? Certainly not in recent memory anyways. A wise old buzzard observed that it hasn’t been this bad since tanks and National Guard were in the streets in the late ‘60s, early ‘70s.

The left is fighting the right, the right is swinging away at the left and a lot of noses in the middle are getting bloodied. Think about this for a second. There is a distinct possibility that Donald Trump may be found guilty, sentenced and win the presidential election from inside a jail cell.

What would that say about our country? Can you imagine?

In the midst of this, a little newspaper in Kansas was raided earlier this month. I’m told that the local government was upset about questions the paper was asking. How dare it! So a judge issued a search warrant and the search and seizure that followed went way beyond norms. Computers, databases and cell phones were taken by people who may as well have been wearing brown shirts.

It’s a long story, but the important takeaways are that our government shouldn’t be able to basically shut down a newspaper because they don’t like something that newspaper is doing. Most importantly, the elderly owner of the paper died of a heart attack the next day. Five days later, everything was returned to the paper . . . like nothing had happened. A person died and freedom of the press was flushed down a toilet.

Like. Nothing. Had. Happened.

Let’s look at our national political scene.

Love him, hate him or don’t care about him, Donald Trump probably isn’t deserving of being the target of almost 100 indictments.

Hey, to be clear – Even some Trump supporters have been on record for a long time saying he’s an arrogant, pompous, blowhard. It’s hard in historical terms to paint him as the greatest president. The facts show that he did not drain the swamp like he said he would, and in fact, added a few trillion to our national debt. Before anyone goes nuts, let’s be more specific. He grew the national debt by 40 percent.

We should not be OK with that.

But we should also not be OK with the guy being the target of an investigation from before he took the oath of office – an investigation that everyone now agrees was made up as a campaign tactic against him. We should not be OK with multiple politicians lying that they had personally seen the evidence (hello Adam Schiff, Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer) against Trump that he was an agent of a foreign government. We should not be OK with the constant witch hunt that ran throughout his entire presidency. We should not be OK with Trump’s constant lies or over exaggerations or whatever you want to call them. Nor should we be OK with how he treats women – or his idiotic mugshot.

If Trump and Biden are the best we can offer as a country . . . well, is there a sadder statement?

Lastly, we should not be OK with a government that tries to silence its enemies – enemies who are Americans, we might add – not a foreign power.

So, what does the newspaper in Kansas, the crappy presidential contenders and the war between the left and the right have to do with each other?

Us.

You’ve all heard the definition of insanity – keep doing the same thing and expect a different outcome. Well, we – as in we the people – have to stop doing the same thing. If you are a Biden or Trump fan, how about hopping off the crazy train to nowheresville for a minute and admit neither did or are doing a good job? How about instead of ripping the guy or gal across the aisle from your political bent we try to see if we can find some common ground? How about if we all acknowledge that our government ain’t what it used to be?

How about if we work together to demand better? Hell, I’ll vote for a Democrat if they have a decent plan and seem to be at least halfway honest. I’ll do the same for a Republican if they meet those standards.

I’ll start trusting our government again when we band together and fire those in power who are only about power.

We’ve fallen and I’m not sure we can get back up. But get up we must, and the only way we can do that is by working together. If anyone hasn’t learned by now that the federal government doesn’t have the answer, they never will. Keep electing good people at the local level and demand more from inside the Beltway.

I hate to break it to you, but it’s one of the very few answers that has a shot at a happy ending.

-Two cents, which is about how much Timmons said his columns are worth, appears periodically on Wednesdays in The Paper. Timmons is the publisher of The Paper and can be contacted at [email protected].