In April 1990 I wrote my first letter to the editor. It was published in the April 27th edition of the Daily Herald, a suburban Chicago newspaper. Over the years I have written many letters to the editor of various newspapers. After writing one for my college newspaper that was fairly well received, I was asked to be a regular columnist for the paper. I had previous experience before 1990 in editorializing when I was self-publishing a small newsletter and mailing it out to my friends. I have also freely shared my opinions on this blog and other computer venues since the geo-cities days. But, April 1990 is what I will always consider the beginning of my public spouting of opinions.
Recently, I obtained a copy of that original letter. My letter was inspired by a column I had read in the Daily Herald a few weeks earlier. I am reprinting it here in it's original form, including the size of the columns when it appeared in print. Please note I did not write the headline.
Reaction to Trump
As I read Burt Constable's column
on April 15 about Moslems reaction
to Donald Trump's Taj Mahal, it got
me wondering what a Christian's re-
action to the Taj should be.
As Constable mentioned, the Taj,
Trump's $1 billion dollar gambling den has
chandeliers alone that cost $14 mil-
lion. Fourteen million dollars. Do
you know how many people you can
feed with that money? How many
non profit organizations could go out
of debt? You could probably even pay four or
five pro athletes' salaries on that a
year, but that's another story.
Donald Trump's very name has
become synonymous with conspicu-
ous consumption, greed and arro-
gance. He is now linking himself
with gambling more and more.
The Bible is clear that it is of little
good if you gain riches at the ex-
pense of your soul. But Trump has
shaped an empire that glorifies and
leads people towards wanting to
make more and more and spend it on
their own pleasures.
The renowned mathematician
Pascal said that within each heart
there lies a God shaped vacuum that
can only be filled by Him. Why is
Donald Trump not satisfied with all
he has amassed? Because he is shov-
ing money, power, and Taj Mahals
galore in that vacuum and still com-
ing up wanting. If he was not, why
the overriding desire to gain the
whole world?
Christian's need to be appalled by
buildings like Trump's Taj not be-
cause they desecrate a symbol but
because they desecrate a system:
giving everything of yourself for the
express glory of God. Trump lives
like the dollar sign should be our
symbol rather than the Cross.
It was not lost on me that my first foray in editorializing was about Donald Trump who is a frequent topic of my opinion based writings. It is somewhat surprising that my description of Trump form 35 years ago still resonates with me. The truth is that from before I wrote this piece until He began running for President in 2015, I didn't really pay much attention to Trump. I watched the occasional episode of The Apprentice, but that was about it. Even when I wrote this piece, Trump was more of a counter example of what Christians should be focusing on. I just enjoy taking ideas like Constable's that Moslems should be offended by calling a Casino the Taj Mahal and turning it on it's side, in this case to explore if people other than Moslems should be offended as well. I chose Christians, particularly Bible believing Christians, because that what I was, and am still.
I still like to employ that strategy in my opinion pieces. It's like Editorial Jazz, I take a piece and riff on it it in a different direction that reflects the point I want to make. In fact I am contemplating writing another letter to the Daily Herald using my first letter as a starting point to ponder Trump's popularity among my people, Bible believing Christians. If I ever produce those 300 words or so I'll post it here as well. Haven't come to the point where I know exactly what I'll say yet, but as I sometimes do I already have a title, "Trump hasn't changed, have Evangelicals?".
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