Condon’s Corner

Feed the Birds, But Educate Yourself First

© Marlene A. Condon 2026 All Rights Reserved

Suet blocks help a variety of birds, such as this Yellow-bellied Sapsucker, to obtain the calories they need for survival. © Marlene A. Condon 

[Published March 31, 2026, by The Daily Progress, the daily newspaper of Charlottesville, Virginia, and April 2, 2026, by The News Virginian, the daily newspaper of Waynesboro, Virginia.]

Helping Birds and Other Wildlife

Over the years, wildlife professionals have frowned upon people who feed birds and perhaps other kinds of wildlife in their yards. The reasons for this attitude are many.

 

These folks worry about the spread of disease when birds are constantly in close contact with each other. They also are concerned that folks will provide food meant for people that may be unhealthful to wildlife.  Additionally, these animals could then become habituated to humans and over time act aggressively towards people when they want food. If that situation occurs, the animals would then need to be killed. (Wildlife removal services must destroy critters taken away.)

Yet the reality is that birds and even wild mammals could use a bit of human help these days. You don’t need to look far to see that we have covered the land with office and apartment buildings, grocery and other kinds of stores, or houses with yards that are mowed and “cleaned up” so much that no natural foods exist for our wildlife.

Making your yard inhospitable to as many critters as possible should never be viewed as good because our environment depends upon wildlife to keep it functioning properly for our benefit. People often overlook this reality.

We need plant eaters to limit the numbers of plants so the plants will not be overcrowded and become diseased.  We require predators to limit the numbers of other kinds of animals, so they are not overcrowded, which also leads to disease. And we need a variety of plants to serve as food themselves for wildlife or to make seeds or fruits for critters to eat.

It’s not difficult for folks to assist wildlife, though. Most yards are landscaped with only beauty in mind, but choosing trees and shrubs that also support wildlife provides the additional interest of getting to view such critters right outside your windows! It’s not hard to find out which plants support wildlife; any local library will have a section of books on this subject. [The Nature-friendly Garden: Creating A Backyard Haven for Plants, Wildlife, and People was written by me and I provided the photographs for it.]

 

Thus, we need to invite wildlife to our properties so our environment can function well, but we also need to help these critters to be safe while there, by—for example—limiting bird collisions with windows.

 

I once worked in a building with large office windows lining both sides and both stories of the workplace. The inside offices were small, so many of them ran down each side of the building, and each and every office had a very large window to bring light inside. Worse yet was the huge glass-way lining the walkway that led to the upstairs library.

Sky and trees around the building were reflected in all that glass, so it wasn’t the least bit unusual to find dead or injured birds on the ground alongside the building. The United States Geological Survey [USGS] estimates that “up to two billion birds are killed each year in the United States due to collisions with glass…”

https://www.usgs.gov/labs/bird-banding-laboratory/science/bird-window-collisions

According to the USGS website mentioned above, simple, inexpensive, and attractive ways exist “to help prevent any type of bird collision by making windows more visible to birds...For low-cost, temporary methods, individuals can make and hang a paracord bird curtain or create decorative patterns using tempera paint and stencils…”  Please visit the site for much more information.

 Also, the threat of cat predation on wildlife has continued for innumerable decades, but it shouldn’t be such a difficult problem to fix. It’s simply a matter of keeping cats indoors instead of letting them roam freely outdoors. It’s puzzling that people who supposedly care about their cats would insist that they should be allowed outdoors when the threat of their pet being run over and killed is extremely high. When I was growing up, neither cats nor dogs were expected to be kept inside, and indeed, several of the cats in our family were killed in just this manner.

 A little education would go a long way towards people knowing what human food is safe and healthful for wild animals to eat. For example, unwanted food (such as fat from cooked meat) needn’t be wasted. It could be put outside at dusk so that mammals won’t associate the food with humans. And regarding birds, the threat of disease at feeders can be dealt with by urging folks to clean feeders weekly, and to take them down for a week or more should disease present itself.

Feeding wildlife in our overbuilt environment can aid rather than harm these animals, but it’s extremely important that it be done properly. Please take time to learn how to best assist wildlife, so you can rest assured your efforts have been helpful, not harmful.

 

 

 

 

CONDON’S CORNER

We Must Face the Environmental Reality of Our Energy Usage

© Marlene A. Condon 2026 All Rights Reserved

[Published February 24, 2026, by The Daily Progress, the daily newspaper of Charlottesville, Virginia.]   

While in grade school, I lived in an area with a large municipal park. Named Forest Park, it contained caged wild animals in addition to picnic tables and other amenities for people to enjoy. Schools brought children there for end-of-the-school-year picnics, but I never truly enjoyed myself.

 

The housing conditions for the more intelligent animals were truly deplorable, the worst being that of a lone Polar Bear (Ursus maritimus) housed in a ridiculously small cage. The poor thing could do nothing all day except pace back and forth or cool off in summer in an equally ridiculously small pool within the cage. Even as a child, I found it hard to understand how people could be so oblivious to the cruelness of such conditions.

 

It broke my heart to watch that bear, but I felt helpless to do anything about its inhumane situation. I don’t know what became of it, but perhaps today I can somewhat make amends by writing about the plight of its Arctic “relatives” that now face poor survival odds due to global climate change.

 

Polar Bears depend upon floating sea ice to catch seals, their main food source. Unfortunately, the Arctic has warmed so much that ice floes do not last long enough for the bears to catch sufficient food to build up their fat layer. Without adequate fat on their bodies to provide needed nutrition throughout the year, bears die.

 

Thanks to the burning of fossil fuels (such as coal and oil that our current president wants the country to return to using), polluting gases that contribute to global warming are emitted. The burning of gasoline in internal combustion engines releases carbon dioxide that traps heat in the atmosphere, and as its concentration increases, we get rising global temperatures. The result is more frequent and intense weather events, as well as rising sea levels, all of which impacts our lives and that of our wildlife.

 

You might think driving an electric car gets you off the hook for causing environmental problems, but although electric-powered vehicles significantly reduce greenhouse-gas emissions compared to vehicles using the traditional combustion engine, you must consider the entire lifecycle of the electric engine, including resource extraction and manufacturing to electricity generation and battery disposal.

 

The environmental cost of manufacturing the battery requires the mining of lithium, cobalt, nickel, and manganese, employing much energy and contributing to wildlife-habitat degradation and water pollution. The energy-intensive refining of these materials increases their carbon footprint, and if your electric vehicle is charged using electricity generated primarily from coal-fired power plants, the reduction in greenhouse gas emissions is probably minimal or non-existent.

 

We need electricity to live comfortably and gas-or-electric powered vehicles to get to work and other activities, but some folks contribute far more than is really necessary to climate change by enjoying luxuries they could easily live without.

 

Some people shop every day to buy fresh food, rather than plan ahead and shop for several days’ worth of groceries at a time. Life is more demanding when you need to spend time planning ahead, and you may need to adjust your menu choices because some things need to be fresh and used almost immediately. But isn’t it worth doing?

 

I’ve seen able-bodied people drive to their mailbox when they could instead do their body good by walking to the end of their not-very-long driveway. Parents are often seen in winter sitting in their heated cars with their children to save them from the “hardship” of waiting outside in their driveway for a few minutes until the school bus arrives.  (Throughout my elementary-to-high school years, I needed to walk down the road—no matter how freezing or snowy the New England weather—to catch the school bus, and I survived.)

 

And, the most egregious practice for many years now is that of parents driving their children to and from school every day rather than having them take the bus!

The best way to minimize climate-change impact is to minimize as much as possible the use of gas-or-electricity-powered vehicles in addition to minimizing as much as possible other uses of electricity.

 

Consider the energy-efficient light bulbs people have been pushed to use. Many people feel it’s okay to leave them burning all day and all night, which not only wastes energy, but also attracts insects during the warmer months of the year that end up starving to death.

 

In point of fact, anything that uses energy should be turned off (and unplugged, if possible) when not necessary to be on, such as computers and associated equipment, such as printers and scanners. Although computer updates are often set to come in overnight, the reality is that they can be gotten the next day when you are done using your computer.

 

Consider reality and act accordingly.

 

 

CONDON’S CORNER

Nature’s Best Hope: “Invasive” Plants

© Marlene A. Condon 2025 All Rights Reserved

[Published January 27, 2026, by The Daily Progress, the daily newspaper of Charlottesville, Virginia and The News Virginian, the daily newspaper of Waynesboro, Virginia.]   

 

People’s desire to “sanitize” the natural world is highly destructive because it destroys habitat for wildlife. Additionally, when all of the shrubby undergrowth along a stream is cleared away (as seen here), the owner is likely to suffer loss of soil due to erosion in a severe rain event.

Recently a number of posts were made on the Virginia Bird List-serve (a website where birders comment on anything having to do with birds) regarding quite a decrease in the numbers of birds seen this fall. One woman, from the Mount Vernon area of Fairfax County, commented that she had been noticing “this for several months now, particularly the local birds. Numbers are way down. I am hoping that the abundant natural foods are more enticing to them, but I have lots of oak trees, beech trees, winterberry holly and native perennials and shrubs that should be drawing the birds to my yard.  They are just not here…”

If you realize the important roles birds play in our environment, such as helping to limit plant-feeding invertebrates as well as excess numbers of plants by eating their fruits or seeds, the above comment that birds “are just not here”—despite supposedly ideal plant conditions in the commenter’s area —should frighten you. Even more concerning is that a dearth of avian species confirms what I’ve been observing for decades now: a dearth of insect species for them and other animals to feed upon. And it’s not only animal life, but also plant life that impacts our critters’ ability to continue on.

Over the past several decades, more years have been drought-stricken, meaning plants don’t get the amount of water they need to survive and reproduce well. This situation greatly affects native plants because they evolved under better conditions of adequate rainfall for their needs. 

Additionally, the overpopulation of deer in Virginia that has been the case for many years means too many plants get eaten by them, not only depriving birds of food, but also cover where they can sleep, roost, and nest.

Without sufficient food and habitat, many kinds of wildlife cannot reproduce as it should and is, therefore, bound to die off. Indeed, each passing year has made clear that not only do we have fewer and fewer birds, but also many other kinds of animals.

The only saving grace that has helped our wildlife survive this long is the presence of so-called invasive plants that people love to hate. Many of these plants are not (yet) eaten by deer, and they can survive the drought conditions that have become so prevalent these days. Yet even these plants can hardly make a go of it, thanks to a majority of people weed-whacking and mowing every last bit of land they own. I live in a rural area of western Albemarle where homeowners not only limit plants on their properties, but also all along roadways, ditches, and old fence rows. Needless to say, this type of “sanitizing” occurs in suburban and urban areas as well.

Poor people and wildlife both suffer the ravages of sanitization. “Waste places”, which should more accurately be seen as natural areas, allow plants and animals to eke out a living, just as those with limited incomes do in trailer parks. Precious-few wild areas exist anywhere to support wildlife, just as precious-few living arrangements are now available for those with small incomes.

Both are viewed in the same disparaging way, as if both are a blight in need of "renewal". But please note: As a poor college student dependent upon grants and work-study programs, I myself lived in a trailer, which was conveniently located near the university I attended. I’d have to say those were some of the best years of my life as I worked to make my dream of getting a college degree come true. And, living in a rural area, I was able to continue my life-long learning about the “weeds” wildlife lived upon.

For a long time now, schools have been teaching children that “invasive” plants are very bad and should be eliminated. When these children become adults, they learn to use pesticides to remove the plants and, consequently, poison the environment. They work at places like Charlottesville Parks & Rec, removing “invasive” plants practically year-around, leaving precious little food or cover behind for birds and other critters.

If native plants could survive in today's world of altered environmental conditions, they—instead of alien plants—would already be growing there. Unfortunately, people have embraced this nonsensical obsession with getting rid of so-called invasive plants that can survive drought and poor soil conditions and thus assist our wildlife to keep it alive. 

I’ve always grown both native and nonnative plants on my property. I’ve witnessed what has happened over the past half a century and have recognized the true value of “invasive” plants. Read most of the articles I’ve had published over the past 35 years and you’ll see my photos of many kinds of creatures making use of the very plants people insist upon removing.

Environmental circumstances have changed, making it terribly difficult for native plants to do well. The anti-invasive-plant movement has done far more harm than good, which means wildlife numbers will continue to drop as long as people adhere to this false dogma.

There can be no denying that Nature’s best hope in a human-degraded world are so-called invasive plants.

 

 

CONDON’S CORNER

Cats kill birds and other wildlife. Why doesn’t anyone seem to really care?

 

© 2025 Marlene A. Condon All Rights Reserved

 [Published December 17, 2025, by The Daily Progress, the daily newspaper of Charlottesville, Virginia and The News Virginian, the daily newspaper of Waynesboro, Virginia.] 

The author with one of the family’s cats in 1973 (© Marlene A. Condon)

The Migratory Bird Treaty Act of 1918 was enacted to provide federal protection to birds that travel between the United States and Canada. "The statute makes it unlawful without a waiver to pursue, hunt, take, capture, kill, or sell nearly 1,100 species of birds listed therein as migratory birds. The statute does not discriminate between live or dead birds and also grants full protection to any bird parts, including feathers, eggs, and nests" 

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Migratory_Bird_Treaty_Act_of_1918]

You might wonder why these birds were given so much attention. As stated in the Act, “Whereas, many of these species are of great value as a source of food or in destroying insects which are injurious to forests and forage plants on the public domain, as well as to agricultural crops, in both Canada and the United States, but are nevertheless in danger of extermination through lack of adequate protection during the nesting season or while on their way to and from their breeding grounds; His Majesty the King of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and of the British dominions beyond the seas, Emperor of India, and the United States of America, being desirous of saving from indiscriminate slaughter and of insuring the preservation of such migratory birds as are either useful to man or are harmless, have resolved to adopt some uniform system of protection which shall effectively accomplish such objects...”

It's a shame that this law hasn't been amended to address free-roaming cats. As it is currently written, a human cannot harm a migratory bird, but no such restriction exists for your cat which can hunt these birds 24/7 if so inclined.

 

It’s easy to look up how many birds are killed by cats. For eye-popping statistics, you should visit “How Many Birds Do Cats Kill? 13 Statistics to Know: 2025 Update (Vet-Reviewed)” 

[https://www.catster.com/statistics/how-many-birds-do-cats-kill-statistics/]

 

All told, we are talking billions of birds around the globe. Yet, Albemarle County, which prides itself on being “green and environmentally conscious”, remains complicit in this avian destruction as though the 1918 treaty does not exist.

 

In 2026, Albemarle will increase its support of the CASPCA to 1.1 million dollars, assuring the continued dispersal of cats to every corner of the county and the concurrent killing of migratory birds and other native animals that comes with it.

[ https://www.albemarle.org/Home/Components/News/News/1083/]

 

I grew up with cats and can personally vouch for their ability to kill or maim numerous other critters.

 

I vividly recall when one of our cats (we often had several at a time) brought home an injured baby Blue Jay. I was horrified and immediately put the cat inside the house. The next thing I know, here comes the cat with yet another baby Blue Jay. Someone had let her out! There were seven people in my family and no one (except for me) would think they should keep a crying cat inside. Thus, that cat climbed the big tree across the street again and again until she had brought back every immature Blue Jay in it. I was devastated.

 

Unfortunately, it has never occurred (apparently) to the folks running the SPCA or our government officials that it is not environmentally friendly to try to save every cat in the world, because when you do, native wildlife is extirpated and lost. There is a finite amount of space that constitutes the natural world—especially as more and more humans move into and alter it—and it is not meant to be solely populated and patrolled by domesticated and feral pets. 

 

Still, CASPCA feels proud of its Trap-Neuter-Return program, in which cats are returned to the community to try to eke out a living as a stray. It is especially these animals that should be caught and put to sleep because this program is, on its face, inhumane. Feral cats are hugely susceptible to getting run over or sick, or being needlessly exposed to freezing temperatures although they are warm-climate creatures, having originated in Egypt and other Near-eastern areas.

 

The exceedingly strange thing about this situation is that it’s entirely preventable by way of sterilization, yet just recently a post was on social media site Nextdoor about the need for someone to take 6 young kittens off the poster’s hands. Isn’t it an owner’s responsibility to neuter his/her female cat to prevent this kind of situation? Even male cats can be sterilized, but few people bother to get it done so unwanted felines could become a thing of the past.

 

Obviously, no one wants to euthanize innocent creatures, which is why laws need to be enacted that either demand sterilization of people’s cats, or keeping them inside or in outdoor enclosures to prevent reproduction. This would also benefit cats and their owners who love them by assuring that their pet is never in danger.  

Please speak up, for cats’ sake!

 

CONDON’S CORNER

 

“The Living Landscape—Even Parking Lots Can Buzz with Life”

 © Marlene A. Condon 2025 All Rights Reserved

  [Published November 26, 2025, by The Daily Progress, the daily newspaper of Charlottesville, Virginia and The News Virginian, the daily newspaper of Waynesboro, Virginia.]

 

This non-native Glossy Abelia (Abelia grandiflora) in the author’s yard has provided food for bees and other insects for decades. In its mature form, it also keeps birds safe from predators within its branches. (© Marlene A. Condon)

  

“The Living Landscape—Even Parking Lots Can Buzz with Life”

 

The past few times I’ve gone to Barracks Road Shopping Center in Charlottesville, I’ve been extremely dismayed to see workmen digging out perfectly healthy plants from the islands located across from the storefronts, and even at the corner of Millmont and Barracks Road.

 

If they’d been removing the sickly trees so prevalent within the various parking lots (where the trees shouldn’t have been planted in the first place), it would have made sense. But no, the ailing trees still stood in their spots, and the healthy shrubs below them or in islands populated solely by shrubs were being completely replaced.

 

This situation troubled me for many reasons. First, it seemed such a waste to be throwing away perfectly healthy, mature plants. The shopping center store fronts were being renovated, but “refurbishing” areas of plants that were doing very well was a waste of time, effort, money, and—saddest of all—numerous useful plants!

 

The ultimate landscape scenario is the one that has withstood the test of time by producing healthy, mature plants. Yet someone made the decision to get rid of the fully grown shrubs that had survived the rigors of growing in a sea of asphalt and vehicle exhaust fumes so customers can instead see small, immature plants without much interest for either people or wildlife. And herein lies the much more serious problem with this ill-informed choice: Wildlife can most often only make use of mature plants that have begun to flower and possibly produce fruits or seeds later.

 

On my most recent trips to the shopping center, I’d observed small bumblebees and honey bees busily visiting the abundant blooms on the several shrubs of dwarf Abelia directly across from the Harris Teeter store. The Abelia was fulfilling its role in nature by supporting these bees with food at a time of year when sustenance has become much more difficult for these critters to find. Most plants are shutting down by the month of November, with precious few making flowers at a time of year when most overwintering insects would have already been hibernating in decades past.

 

Thanks to global climate change, however, our seasons no longer function as they once did, with alterations in temperature and rainfall that interfere with the lives of both plants and animals that evolved under a different set of conditions. It’s one of the reasons our wildlife (and native plants) is disappearing from our midst.

 

However, we do have plants here that originated in other countries and can do quite well under such conditions. In fact, they do so well with a dearth of rain and extreme high and low temperatures throughout the year that uninformed people now consider them “invasive”. They blame them for the disappearance of our native plants and spend a lot of time getting folks outside to destroy these plants, but it’s a huge mistake born of a lack of true knowledge.

 

If people had properly learned in school to observe their surroundings carefully before taking action, they would realize that the so-called invasive plants mainly come up in barren areas devoid of plants. In other words, by filling in empty areas with wildlife-useful plants where native plants obviously are not capable of growing, non-native plants assist our critters to survive.

 

These fall-colored, beautifully red-leaved Euonymus alatus along a roadside should not be interpreted as “invasive”, but rather as “helpful”. They will feed birds and mammals in an area where most native plants struggled to survive in 2025 because of drought that is becoming much more common. (© Marlene A. Condon)

Of course, another reason wildlife is becoming scarce is because most people want their home and work landscapes to reflect what they themselves want to look at instead of taking into account the needs of their wildlife dependents. Yes, in the 21^st Century, wildlife depends upon humans for their welfare because humans are in control of the entire world. And as evidenced by the remodeling efforts at Barracks Road Shopping Center this fall, wildlife is getting the short end of the stick. 

 

As numerous people walked by me across from Harris Teeter, either intent on getting their shopping done inside the store or returning to their vehicles to move along to new places and tasks, they either didn’t notice or didn’t care that the Abelia shrubs were supporting the life forms that keep our natural world functioning properly for their benefit. Not one person took a few moments to stop to ask what I might be studying so intently. And even more sad is that no one will have been made aware of how crucial those Abelia blooms were to the insects that so assist mankind to survive.

 

In January 2025, the Doomsday Clock—the symbol of global catastrophe—was set to the closest time ever: 89 seconds to midnight,

   

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doomsday_Clock

 

When the clock runs out, our time is up. And it may well run out, thanks to landscapes based upon people’s preferences rather than those of wildlife. Trust me, we need living landscapes that work for our benefit, not artificially contrived ones based upon aesthetics only.

 

 

 

God Bless America? Not Today’s America.

CONDON’S CORNER

Are flags flying in abundance both outside and inside an Albemarle County doctor’s office welcoming to everyone, or just conservatives, looking for healthcare? (© Marlene A. Condon)

God Bless America? Not Today’s America.

 © 2025 Marlene A. Condon 

[Published November 6, 2025, by The Daily Progress, the daily newspaper of Charlottesville, Virginia,]

Time was when the American flag represented America—period. It was a symbol of which to be proud, whether or not you were politically active. You knew it “spoke” on behalf of every citizen in the country. Unfortunately, it has now lost this significance, and only stands for one political group: conservatives.

 

Everyone recognizes that any house with this flag attached to a porch or fence, or flying on a short pole in the front yard, now shouts support of a particular political-group’s opinions instead of full support of a united country of various views (which, by the way, has always been the true value of being an American). And, as if this tactic of in-your-face divisiveness isn’t bad enough, consider that we now have flags manifested in some doctor’s offices, for goodness’ sake!

 

I’m not talking one flag on a pole outside the building, mind you, that formerly would have made folks think of pride of country. No, now we’re seeing numerous flags inside of a medical building to let it be known clearly to all who enter that it’s a conservative bastion: “[A]n institution, place, or person strongly defending or upholding particular [emphasis mine] principles, attitudes, or activities”. [Oxford Dictionaries]

 

Who in the medical establishment would consider this display appropriate, even when it stood for the country as a whole rather than a subgroup of people of a particular political persuasion? Medical offices should be seen as impartial and welcoming to all, meaning liberals, independents, or even foreigners visiting or residing here who need a doctor’s help to restore good health.

 

No reason exists to flaunt love of country inside a medical facility where folks of every sort come for assistance unless the people in charge of the facility support current presidential policies, or fear—for some reason—being punished by a president who has made a mission of going after those who stand up against his own biased thoughts.   

 

It’s as if our shared symbol of unity despite our differences has been transformed into an accentuation of our differences in spite of our cohabitation.

 

If you lean conservative, you may believe it’s a wonderful turn of events for people to now see the American flag as representative of your political beliefs instead of being representative of the country as a whole. But what that signifies is a country divided, and is that situation truly something conservatives should be happy about?

 

We’ve been through a period of political division in which many lives were needlessly lost: The Civil War. One would think people would prefer to get along than to engage in such horrific warfare.

 

As someone who grew up in New England but attended college in Virginia, I must say my impression of those Southerners whose history goes back to pre-Civil War days is one of a people loathe to forget what they view as a foreign will being forced upon them. Seriously? Have we not all been aware of our shared good fortune to have been born in the greatest country in the world, not because of wealth in any sense, but because of the quite precious freedom we enjoy far more than most any country on the planet?

 

I was brought up to appreciate our freedom. So, almost forty years ago, when I bought my current residence, I put a small American flag at the entrance to my home. It was placed into a hole drilled into the wooden fence near the driveway. I was proud to be an American and deeply appreciative of what that meant for me and my loved ones—as well as everyone else. 

 

Sadly, it’s been years since I’ve flown my little flag, because I no longer feel that I live in the United States of America, but rather, a very disunited and divided America. It currently feels as if we have become two countries pretty much at war with one another; one country open to inclusiveness and the other very much against that philosophy.

 

Yet, inclusiveness is exactly what our great country was, indeed, founded upon and what made it so great. It’s why so many human beings have come, and continue to come, here.

 

Sure, people being people, we’ve always had to deal with some folks exhibiting intolerant prejudice against other human beings of specific color, religious affiliation, same-sex attraction, or ancestral origin that was different from their own. But these unbecoming attitudes tended to be limited to subgroups in America that didn’t represent the majority of us. Unfortunately, this truism no longer stands.

 

Thanks to a president whose every action seems based upon deliberate political antagonism, we are now a country much fractionated instead of unified.

 

Since when is it a president’s business to threaten cities, especially only those run by the opposing political party, as our current president has done in Los Angeles and Washington, D.C., and is threatening to do in Chicago, Baltimore, New Orleans, and Portland, Oregon? [The Daily Progress, E-Edition Plus, Sunday, September 7, 2025]

 

This man is supposed to represent all of us; not just those who elected him: “As the only elected official who represents everyone in the U.S., the president is expected to be a unifying leader for the whole nation — not just for [his] political party or supporters. The president should, therefore, exemplify the highest leadership qualities and honor the values of democracy.”

[https://www.learningforjustice.org/the-roles-and-responsibilities-of-the-president]

 

But has he done this? Is our president behaving in a manner that is unifying for our nation when he deliberately goes after big-city Democrats who don’t behave as he demands?

 

“Government is given authority by the people to protect the rights of all the governed (not just the majority and not only of any one political party). Government must, therefore, respect everyone’s rights and provide equal protection to all. [Emphasis mine]”

 

[https://www.learningforjustice.org/what-are-the-values-of-democracy]

 

Read what’s happening in our country today under our current leadership and, if you possess an ounce of humanity, you should feel appalled and disgusted. I truly doubt God blesses today’s America.