“These are the times that try men’s souls,” the great American patriot Thomas Paine wrote. We could use the strength of Paine and people like him at this moment.
Yesterday’s terrorist attack in London – which left seven dead and dozens wounded, including 21 critically – was not merely a momentary victory for the terrorists. It was a win for the strongmen of the world like President Donald J. Trump, whose response to them is more hatred and more irrational violence. Notice I wrote, “irrational violence.” ...
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Read MoreSo President Donald J. Trump has pulled the United States out of the Paris Climate Accord – a decision with fewer practical consequences than symbolic ones.
Practically, much if not most of the U.S. – states, cities, corporations, individuals – is committed to the accord. There’s nothing Trump can do about companies or people acting responsibly where the environment is concerned.
But the effect of the pullout is real in the sense that it absents the U.S. as an entity from the moral leadership it has exerted in the past. Into that vacuum sweeps China, Russia, you name it and the question becomes, Having relinquished our position as world leader, can we ever get it back? ...
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