Being aware of bias in the news is something I've talked about.
Wherever there are people, there will be different views. With enough people to pull from, news sites can inevitably find someone who says what they want said.
That's no reason to give up on being informed, though. There are often patterns that emerge.
One patterns that has emerged is that there is a revolving door in the White House. People are appointed. There is drama. People leave. The drama continues afterward.
A recent example I've seen in the news is retired General James Mattis. CNN was happy to air his opinions on Trump's handling of the recent protests.
Fox was happy to air the rebuttal and people who disagreed.
In the beginning, there was bilateral support and praise for Mattis' appointment (even in the news media!).
Mattis' appointment required a vote and it passed in the senate with 98 approving, 1 voting against, and 1 vote not cast. I didn't bother to look up the House vote record.
Mattis had a reputation for being good at his job and for being focused on the mission rather than politics.
I remember laughing at a meme from when a man from Utah made threats against the administration.
How times have changed.
Mattis offered his letter of resignation in protest of how Trump treated US Allies. Trump replaced him quickly thereafter and insisted that he fired Mattis instead of Mattis resigning.
I think of a good leader as someone who can work with and bring out the best in the people around them to accomplish a mission.
Personally, I want to work under a principal who knows what they're doing. I want them to build a cohesive staff through hiring and training. I want them to create a healthy, team-oriented climate in the school. I want them to celebrate successes, not be afraid to make hard decision, and to always be growing rather than stuck in their ways. I want a leader who can realize when he made a mistake, learn from it, and then fix it or at least come out wiser.
I've had multiple principals like this.
I've also had principals who were not like this.
Turnover is a given in schools as people move, start families, try new opportunities, have life crisis, and even burn-out. But the schools I've been at where people wanted to be and the schools where people couldn't wait to get out of had very different feels to them.
A good leader can take a group of diverse people with diverse skills and meld them together to become greater than the sum of the parts.
Trump doesn't fit the bill.
Trump is not the only president to have turnover in the White House, but it feels to me like he's had a larger number of flame-outs that even I can name.
There was Tillerson at the State Department. My dad worked at Exxon and described Tillerson as intelligent and business-minded (and I take note when my dad calls someone intelligent). Rumors were that he called Trump a "moron."
Then there was Bolton the ex-National Security Advisor. His book is due to be published at the end of June with hints of subpoena threats and tell-it-all-drama proceeding.
Trump could be terrible at picking people. Maybe Bolton would have written a dramatic book so he could get rich no matter who the president was. Maybe Tillerson would have not liked to have anyone in authority over him after being in charge of his own company.
On the other hand, Trump could be terrible at managing people. From the outside, it seems like he enjoys pitting people against each other where he stays on top and no one can ally against him.
Or perhaps it's a combination of both?
However it happened, the turnover and the wounds left in its wake is a bad sign. Picking terrible people is a weakness in a leader and the best leaders are able to bring out the best in their employees.
No one will get it right all of the time and being in the spotlight means every mistake gets broadcast by competing news media.
I wrote this now, because I have been disheartened with how Trump has been handling the protests. Instead of trying to listen and heal the nation, it feels like he has tried to bully his opponents into backing down and has fanned flames rather than extinguishing them.
Trump has always been one to speak without thinking (not a good leadership trait), but talking about using the military to deal with domestic protests is something I and many others felt the need to speak out about.
Fox posted an article mentioning some friction between Trump and the Pentagon about the potential order while CNN's headline was more flamboyant.
Different sites. Different biases....but a pattern.
This was all happening at the same time as a photo-op at a local cathedral.
The police was accused of using tear gas to clear peaceful protesters for the photo-op.
At first, Fox news had a different take.
But days later the story had changed. Fox tends to support Trump more and mentioned it was one agent who used tear gas by mistake. Other news outlets were more outraged.
By the way, the bishop of the church was not pleased.
I saw the meme and wondered if it was cherry-picked and doctored (because people do that). I watched an interview with the bishop and while I didn't hear those exact words in that exact order I did hear a very similar message.
General Milley who was present at the photo-shoot has apologized for being there. When I tried to look it up, I was treated to lots of talking heads from different media groups before I found the source material.
9:48 is where the General talks about Lafayette Square. He does speak against racism earlier on, as well.
I respect that he would publicly humble himself to say what he did.
And that's enough for now.
This whole post is basically a lament about not having what I view as a good leader in the White House. Trump seems incapable of ever admitting wrong-doing, attacks, calls names, and has further polarized an already polarized country. He's done some things I like: such as sanctioning China for walking back freedoms in Hong Kong. But Trump's solutions have come at a cost. They've usually been done in such a combative way they create more problems for further down the line.
I don't like to write political posts, and I wondered if it was a mistake to write this one. It does show some of what's been on my mind as I've been praying for the country, though. And it's already been written and I'm behind.
Bonus observation (Humorous):
Have you ever noticed how Trump will randomly type a few words in all caps in his Twitter feed? It always give me the image of him walking out on his balcony and bellowing out into the air.
I can't help but imagine Trump's trying to sound like Kirk in Star Trek 2.
You are so wise! Well thought out and written!
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