PERSPECTIVE FROM THE 19^TH HOLE:  This is the title I chose for my personal blog, which is meant to give me an outlet for one of my favorite crafts – writing – plus to use an image from my favorite sport, golf.  Out of college, my first job was as a reporter for the Daily Astorian in Astoria, Oregon, and I went on from there to practice writing in all of my professional positions, including as press secretary in Washington, D.C. for a Democrat Congressman from Oregon, as an Oregon state government manager in Salem and Portland, as press secretary for Oregon’s last Republican governor (Vic Atiyeh), and as a private sector lobbyist.  This blog also allows me to link another favorite pastime – politics and the art of developing public policy – to what I write.

This, remember, is one of three departments I run as director.  The others are the Department of Pet Peeves and the Department of Good Quotes Worth Remembering.  But “Just Saying” is open more than the other two these days because, during the coronavirus pandemic, there are so many occurrences that I don’t understand.

So, here are a few.

TRUMP, THE WORST EVER PRESIDENT:  Washington Post columnist Max Boot wrote this yesterday:

“Until now, I have generally been reluctant to label Donald Trump the worst president in U.S. history.  As a historian, I know how important it is to allow the passage of time to gain a sense of perspective.  Some presidents who seemed awful to contemporaries (Harry S. Truman) or simply lackluster (Dwight D. Eisenhower, George H.W. Bush) look much better in retrospect.  Others, such as Thomas Jefferson and Woodrow Wilson, don’t look as good as they once did.

“So I have written, as I did on March 12, that Trump is the worst president in modern times — not of all time.  That left open the possibility that James Buchanan, Andrew Johnson, Franklin Pierce, Warren Harding or some other non-entity would be judged more harshly.  But in the past month, we have seen enough to take away the qualifier “in modern times.”  With his catastrophic mishandling of the coronavirus, Trump has established himself as the worst president in U.S. history.”

Comment:  Just saying that Trump has behaved in unconscionable ways during the pandemic.

• He has ignored advice from seasoned scientists who aren’t perfect but do understand epidemics.
• He has kept the stage for himself in a host of events when he should have left the microphones to experts.
• He appointed his son-in-law, Jarod Kushner, to be in charge of dispensing medical equipment around the country, singularly the worst appointment in history, given Kushner’s absolute lack of qualifications.
• He has deluded the country by his own, duplicitous words, labeling the virus first nothing to worry about, then calling it a Democrat hoax, then giving conflicting information on actions to take to stem the tide.

On this point, consider what columnist Eugene Robinson wrote this morning in the Washington Post:

“It is remarkable how a tongue-twisting word few of us were familiar with a month ago — hydroxychloroquine — has suddenly come to represent so many of the reasons Trump should not be president, especially during a time of crisis.  That one word illustrates Trump’s arbitrary, anecdote-based method of making decisions; his reliance on cronies who have no relevant expertise; his rejection of science, or perhaps his failure to understand how science even works; his defiant stubbornness in clinging to what he ’knows,’ even when he doesn’t actually know it; his obsessiveness even in the face of contrary evidence; and his imperviousness to fact-based arguments he does not want to recognize.

This reminds me that, ast year, we traveled north to Seattle to see my daughter and two grandchildren – obviously, before the coronavirus pandemic.  We attended my granddaughter’s class where it was her turn to make a report on one of the U.S. presidents.  Her assignment was Rutherford B. Hayes, who, she said, often bore the title of the country’s worst president.

Well, for me, no longer.  The “honor” goes to Trump

DRUG COMPANIES PREPARE VACCINES:  A report in the Washington Post this morning said that drug companies around the world are working hard to get coronavirus vaccines to market.  In fact, more than 140 experimental drug treatments for coronavirus are in development world-wide, including some already in clinical trials.

Comment:  Just saying, good.  The solution to the coronavirus pandemic is to find a vaccine that works and here’s hoping that the normal year-long process to gain approval can be abridged by smart operators.  And, if this means that some pharmaceutical companies get rich, so be it.

RELIGION’S RESPONSE TO THE CORONAVIRUS:  Most genuine religious organizations – including “my” church here in Salem, Oregon — are doing their best to respond to the coronavirus pandemic by living within both the spirit and the letter of government “stay at home” rules.  This has meant a variety of on-line approaches to what formerly would have been in-person gatherings.  So be it.  But there are outliers – pastors who flout the rule of law by holding in-person church services.  One of them, in Florida, has been arrested for his conduct.  Good.

Some religious groups are even saying they will file suit against the federal government, contending that freedom of religion allows them to assemble.

Comment:  Just saying that stupidity of some organizations and pastors should not be taken as illustrative of Christianity as a whole   In this case, to use an old phrase, rotten apples spoil the barrel.

Chaim Steinmetz, senior rabbi of Congregation Kehilath Jeshurun in New York, put it this way in a piece for the Washington Post this morning:

“… the pandemic has forced religious groups to make difficult choices.  Houses of worship have to decide whether they should remain open.  Clergy have to decide whether they will continue to officiate at funerals and weddings.  The coronavirus has put health at the top of the agenda and subordinated almost everything else.  For many believers, though, prioritizing the secular while ignoring the spiritual is sacrilegious.  Yet ultimately, ensuring people’s health and safety is a supreme act of spiritual care.”

Well said.