Only five of the 61 minutes Trump ranted before the press in the rose garden was spent addressing the crises facing Trump’s administration. He barely touched on the growing pandemic; attacked protesters while ignoring their demands for social justice; and continued to ignore Russia’s declaration of war against our soldiers in Afghanistan. Not for a single minute did he display leadership or instill confidence.

Trump claims that he passed a ‘cognitive test’ recently. I doubt that is true, but the obvious fact is that he needs a complete psychiatric evaluation. His inability to focus on anything for more than a few seconds suggests a mind incapable of organized and rational thought. His many tantrums, reported by White House insiders, is an example of malignant narcissism. When everything doesn’t go his way, he is unable to think about anything but himself.

Trump continues to insist that children go back to school in just weeks. He is not paying attention to the fact that the coronavirus is more serious today than it was in March when he finally admitted its existence. Yesterday Florida reached an all-time high in deaths related to Covid-19. Texas is reporting that its morgues are at capacity. But Trump wants to send your small children back to school. Unforgivable.

My daughter, her husband, and my two granddaughters live in south Florida. They are all recovering from the coronavirus. She is concerned about sending the girls back to school. She posted the following questions on Facebook; questions Betsy DeVos and Trump cannot answer, and don’t care to.
QUESTIONS THAT NEED TO BE ANSWERED BEFORE SCHOOL OPENS:

Questions for School Openings:

• If a teacher tests positive for COVID-19 are they required to quarantine for 2-3 weeks? Is their sick leave covered, paid?
• If that teacher has 5 classes a day with 30 students each, do all 150 of those students need to then stay home and quarantine for 14 days?
• Do all 150 of those students now have to get tested? Who pays for those tests? Are they happening at school? How are the parents being notified? Does everyone in each of those kids’ families need to get tested? Who pays for that?
• What if someone who lives in the same house as a teacher tests positive? Does that teacher now need to take 14 days off of work to quarantine? Is that time off covered? Paid?
• Where is the district going to find a substitute teacher who will work in a classroom full of exposed, possibly infected students for substitute pay?
• Substitutes teach in multiple schools. What if they are diagnosed with COVID-19? Do all the kids in each school now have to quarantine and get tested? Who is going to pay for that?
• What if a student in your kid’s class tests positive? What if your kid tests positive? Does every other student and teacher they have been around quarantine? Do we all get notified who is infected and when? Or because of HIPAA regulations are parents and teachers just going to get mysterious “may have been in contact” emails all year long?
• What is this stress going to do to our teachers? How does it affect their health and well-being? How does it affect their ability to teach? How does it affect the quality of education they are able to provide? What is it going to do to our kids? What are the long-term effects of consistently being stressed out?
• How will it affect students and faculty when the first teacher in their school dies from this? The first parent of a student who brought it home? The first kid?
• How many more people are going to die, that otherwise would not have if we had stayed home longer?

30% of the teachers in the US are over 50. About 16% of the total deaths in the US are people between the ages of 45-65.

We are choosing to put our teachers in danger.

Betsy DeVos admitted Sunday the the Department of Education, which she runs, has no plan. Without leadership in Washington, who can we trust? Maybe the administration of our 46^th president.

Change is coming on November 3^rd: Make sure you are part of it; VOTE.

Op-ed by James Turnage

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My eight novels, including “DOING THE RIGHT THING FOR GOD AND COUNTRY,” are available on Amazon’s free Kindle app