President's words at European Summit 'horrifying'

[Editor’s note: This letter was edited for content.]

I am horrified by the President’s words at the European Summit and his subsequent meeting with Putin. This is a man who sees himself as the center of the universe; anyone who disagrees with him is “stupid,” including the country which he serves. He is crude, rude, callous and without loyalty. He disdains the experience of the people that surround him. He leaves a wake of lives ruined.

Sadly, he also may be the mirror that reflects our future. What have we become, and perhaps even more than we, what have I become? This is a question that each of us has to ask.

I wrote a letter to him last night scorching him with words and ending it with, “Don’t let the door hit you in the butt.” Who does that sound like but the President himself? We snicker at such speech. We post it on Facebook about those who disagree with us (stupid people). Only the worst in people is sensationalized.

For instance, we ignore the incredible sacrifice that those around us make to keep us safe and categorize all as monsters and racists (callous and ruinous). What’s frightening is that harsh and critical words reflect our heart. In the words of life, the very fabric of our being, we are told to love. Love your God. Then love your neighbors as yourself. The strands of this love hold me together and has the potential to unite our country (our neighbors) as one nation.

Maybe it is time to appreciate the richness of this cloth with all of its colors and with its frail and hefty strands. It is only together that it finds strength. Maybe it is time for me to look at my own frayed ends before judging the ones beside me.

I can’t do this alone. God gives me His words and each person around me is a gift from Him. I know this on my good days. And He guides me back to that love after my bad days. He seeks good for me and He seeks good for you. His word is to me. What business is other’s relationship to God? It is for each of us to realize. It is only the knitting together of the individual threads that the each of us becomes what we were created to be.

This is the time for me to become what my weaver means me to be. I want to see Him in the mirror and not Donald Trump.

­— Carla Parks, Thompson Falls