Nov 10, 2019 2 min read

After graduating from college in 1974, I was employed in a low-level position in local government. I was soon exposed to the fact that often before contracts were awarded to concessionaires, certain “favors” were expected to be provided to the political party in power.

I was told “that’s just the way things work.”

A few years later, I took another type of government job. There I encountered one of the most egregious examples of a contract being awarded to a concessionaire who provided substandard products, but made generous “donations” for political events.

I watched in utter disgust recently as a CNN reporter interviewed Washington residents who found nothing wrong with the actions of President Trump regarding Ukraine. Asking a country at war with Russia to carry out a “favor” before receiving military aid is no less morally corrupt than the crooked extortion I witnessed as a young person on my first job.

I’m a child of the 1960s. I remember doing atomic bomb drills in my grade school during the Cuban missile crisis. Hiding under our desks, we lived in real terror that we would be incinerated by Russian missiles. I also remember when people opposed restrictions on firearms because someday they might be needed to fight the invading Russian army. How soon people forget the lessons of history. I will never see Russia as a bosom buddy the way Trump does. It should not be acceptable to withhold military aid the Ukrainians need to fight the Russians in exchange for some dirty gossip on a political opponent.

As the CNN reporter stated, Trump could have gone to Congress and stated publicly that he held up military aid until a matter of corruption in Ukraine was investigated. Everything could have been above board and transparent. Instead, Trump sent a shifty conspirator and his henchmen to work behind the scenes and undermine career diplomats. This is how dirty politics worked decades ago and should not be just how things are done now.

Thais Tepper

Chokoloskee, Fla.