Trump must be called out when he is wrong, and recognized when he is right

Whenever I mention the word, Trump, some people perk up to hear whether I’m going to say something positive or something negative.  Why is that?  Why do some people believe it’s important to support everything this President says and does? 

To my thinking, there is just no reason to feel as though everything any person says and does (including the President) requires protection from naysayers. 

When my eldest daughter was in grade school, there was a young chap who lived down the block.  His parents seemed first class.  In fact we went to dinner a few times, were entertained in their home and they in ours. 

One day my daughter came home crying.  According to her, the boy had bullied her all the way home from grade school.  I brushed off her tears and redirected her to more constructive things. 

A week later there was a recurrence.  Again I brushed it off. 

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Then after more several days, I was faced with another episode.  This time it was my daughter and another little girl.  I soothed them both and sent them to the yard to play. 

The next day my phone rang.  A neighbor told me that she had heard screaming and went to her front porch to see a boy hitting two girls with a stick.  Both girls were crying.  The neighbor broke it up and sent the boy running. 

When my daughter and her friend arrived home, they were sobbing.  My daughter had scratches on her arms where the boy had hit her with the stick. 

After calming the girls, I thought about how to handle the situation.  The boy was after all the son of neighbors.  My daughter pleaded with me to protect her from the bullying. 

So I took the girls and walked to the boy’s nearby home.  Both parents came to the door.  I explained the situation, showed the marks on my daughter’s arms, allowed the girls to say what had happened, and I mentioned the neighbor who had called me. 

Rather than working to find a solution, I was treated to a raft of denials and rage.  It could not have been their son.  Their son would never do such a thing.  Their son was one of the brightest kids in the grade school and would have only done these things if he had a good reason.  My daughter and her friend must be jealous and just trying to get their son into trouble. 

And with that they slammed their door. 

They never spoke to me again. 

And the only way the bullying stopped was by my picking up the girls at the grade school and driving them home.   

I have wondered after these many years why the boy’s parents would have taken such a stand.  Wouldn’t it have been better to have spoken with their son?  Explained why this was not appropriate behaviour?  And perhaps brokered an apology and a promise to treat girls nicely? 

But, no.  The neighbors had an image of what their son was.  It did not matter whether that image was accurate or not.  Any besmirching of what they believed their son to be was unacceptable.  And they were willing and fully capable of ruining relationships over that belief. 

Which gets us back to Trump. 

Trump recently met with a group of evangelical Christian leaders.  These leaders have a number of issues in which they believe with all of their hearts. 

But during the meeting Trump lied. 

Trump said that before the Trump Presidency "Little thing - Merry Christmas. You couldn't say Merry Christmas.”  "I'm telling you - when I started running I used to talk about it and I hate to mention it in August, but I used to talk about it. They don't say Merry Christmas anymore."  Trump then said that because of Trump "They say Merry Christmas a lot right now. It's all changed. It's all changed." 

That is not true.  I have always said “Merry Christmas” to my fellow Christians.  I have said other greetings to my friends who are not Christian.  I have always respected others and their religious beliefs.  You likely have done the same. 

Trump also repeated his untruthful claim that he had abolished a law forbidding churches and charitable organizations from endorsing political candidates.  Those in the meeting were ecstatic. 

Except it is not true.  The law is still the law, after efforts to kill it in Congress last year failed.

So why didn’t those meeting with Trump speak up?  Truth is still truth. 

My point is this.  When Trump does something wrong, flat out lies, or acts in a way that is bonkers (like imprisoning 12,800 kids to keep them away from their immigrant parents), then as citizens we should say it like it is.  Even when we support other things that this Administration does that we may like. 

It does not matter if Trump is a saint or a devil.  When he says and does something good, he should be rewarded.  And when he doesn’t, he should be exposed and scolded. 

The neighbor kid may or may not have grown up to be a responsible man.  But as a boy he should not have bullied my daughter and her little girl friend.  He should have been told that was wrong. 

Bill Gindlesperger is a central Pennsylvanian, Shippensburg University trustee and founder of eLynxx Solutions that provides software for managing direct mail, marketing and print.  He is a board member, campaign advisor, published author, and Talk Radio 103.7 commentator.  He can be reached at Bill.Gindlesperger@eLynxx.com