What has happened to our country? Once, we were the playground leader that stood up for others, helping rescue Europe and the world from Nazism. Then somehow, we traded our sense of fairness and right for egoism and might. We have become the bully. The kid who pushes around the little guy, even the nicest kid in the room, Canada. We are going after Greenland to steal his lunch money and the troubled kid, Venezuela, to steal his toys. We belittled our already bullied friend, Ukraine, by dressing down its leader in that infamous White House meeting. And we continue to disrespect and push around our best buddies, our NATO allies.

What has happened to our sense of order and fair play? Do we really believe it’s OK to threaten and steal and twist arms to take whatever we want, whenever we want? Conservative columnist George Will hit the nail on the head, calling our leadership “a moral slum of an administration.” And our Congress is equally culpable, abdicating its responsibility by failing to curb this bullying, allowing the thugs to run roughshod over norms and laws and the Constitution.

Shame on us for becoming the bully. We are better than that.

ANDREW DUHON

Lafayette