President's speech

[L. Cooper]

I am thinking.

I'm thinking about something my grandfather always said whenever I was being overbearing in some way: "You have to give every other human being the same freedom you demand for yourself. You have to give up every freedom you insist others can't have."

To make it more "Christian" in context; "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you."

It does not say "Do unto others as they do to you".

I'm thinking that the original post contains values, attitudes, and biases that contradict those simple but profoundly elegant ideas. Whether or not the speech will be made by a president, it was "made" by someone, and several here are agreeing with the principles it contains. Those principles are short sighted, selfish, arrogant and dangerous. They are not principles Christ would have agreed to, and I believe they do not support the principles of justice, personal freedom, democracy, and protection of the rights of the most powerless for which the American Constitution is so justifiably praiseworthy.

And that is what the American Constitution has to do with foreign peoples. It applies directly, of course, only to Americans, but, if it is to have the legitimacy its authors intended, it's values and principles should be the basis for the way the U.S. treats all peoples, not just its own. Unfortunately, those principles seem to have been abandoned by the people deciding American foreign policy.

The original also contains a direct threat to Canadians. Why is there any surprise that an American suggesting Canadians better stop "pissing us off" pisses us off? That's the way bullies work. They threaten to hurt you if you don't do what they want.

Nice people don't do that.