May 19, 2017
Dear Mr. President,
You know there has been a tiny little sliver of sunshine in
this week of otherwise disgusting political news....and it's John McCain the
Republican Senator from Arizona. You
remember him, he's the guy that you said wasn't a war hero because he was
captured and held prisoner for more than 5 years in Vietnam (refusing early
release even after being repeatedly beaten because he felt prisoners should be
released in the order they were captured and he was being offered preferential
treatment as the son of an admiral).
Yeah, that guy. You could learn a
lot from him. Throughout this whole week
of scandal and uproar he has repeatedly put his loyalty to the country above
loyalty to his party (as ALL elected officials should) and was one of the first
to call for an independent counsel to investigate your Russian connections and
threats to Director Comey. He's a guy who says what he means and means what he
says. He's got integrity (boy it's been
a long time since I've used that word in relation to a politician) and the
respect of people on both sides of the aisle because of it.
So on Tuesday night when the security forces of President
Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey - including several armed individuals - charged
and attacked a group of peaceful protestors standing outside the ambassador's
residence he SPOKE UP. He had the
integrity to say NO. This was by all
accounts a brutal attack; 11 people injured, 9 sent to the hospital, and 2
secret service agents assaulted. But
this wasn't only an attack on Americans, it was an attack on free speech and
democracy and it happened right here in our nation's capital! What the hell Mr. Trump?! Where were you? What have you got to say about this?
I'll tell you what John McCain had to say, he said the
Turkish ambassador should immediately be
thrown out of the country. He said,
"This is the United States of America, this isn't Turkey, this isn't a
third-world country, and this kind of thing cannot go un-responded to
diplomatically and maybe in other ways."
He also said that whoever issued the orders to attack should be charged
with a crime because, "You cannot have that happen in the United States of
America. People have the right in our
country to peacefully demonstrate and they were peacefully
demonstrating." Even DC police and
local officials have decried this as a "brutal, violent" attack that
needs a formal response. But here's what
your administration had to say about it:
a full 24 hours AFTER the attack the State Dept said they were,
"concerned by the violent incidents involving protestors and Turkish
personnel." That's it. Then Sean
Spicer declined to comment on the attack, on the video footage of the attack,
on whether or not you had seen the video footage of the attack, and merely
referred reporters to the State Department's statement.
When people wonder what's wrong with our government and how
it got so dysfunctional- this event is what I will think of. Because how can any elected official,
regardless of their party affiliation, look at this scene and not feel
outrage? I'm at least glad that John
McCain does and that he is willing to speak up. Thank you Senator McCain.
Sincerely,
Amy Beaton
P.S. Refresh my
memory, how many hotels and properties do you own in Turkey again?
👍🏻
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