Dear Editor:

In the movie “Forrest Gump,” Tom Hanks so famously said (I paraphrase) “My momma told me that I would have to open the box of chocolates to know what’s in it.”

I thought of the feel-good acceptance speech given by President Biden at his inaugural address. Being a skeptic and somewhat of a cynic, I wondered exactly what was in his box of goodies in which he touted unity, healing the soul of our nation, and building back America better. I was not surprised when he opened his box of chocolates to see not one piece of sweetness - only dark, bitter, sour, destructive policies - worse than I ever imagined.

With a stroke of a pen, he shut down the XL pipeline that provided thousands of jobs and a safe, non-polluting way of transporting crude oil from Canada to Houston for refining. Additionally, he ceased the operation of oil-drilling on public land, thus making our country dependent on foreign oil again while giving Russia approval for building his pipeline into Europe.

With another stroke of a pen, he shut down the erection of our border wall, and with wide-open arms welcomed anyone and everyone into our country regardless if they were COVID-19 infected or carrying other deadly diseases. These thousands of illegal immigrants are now being transported via bus or plane to communities throughout the United States, placing a big burden on local governments and threatening the sovereignty of our nation big-time.

Biden and Congress are pushing heavily to burden our country with another $6 trillion of debt to cover hand-outs to every cause under the sun, and providing only a very small amount of money towards infrastructure. Inflation is sky-high. Gasoline prices in California are a dollar more per gallon than a year ago. Stimulus checks and other hand-outs are continually being distributed, causing many not to return to work because their income is higher than if they should work, leaving many job opportunities available with no one willing to fill them.

And now this debacle in Afghanistan. What country would remove their troops from a battlefield before bringing home their citizens, expensive vehicles, guns, ammunition and other expensive equipment? What country would abandon their allies in the battlefield? Yep, you guessed it. Biden and his inept State Department and Defense leaders who had no foresight and no conditions placed upon the enemy when exiting Afghanistan.

During Trump’s last 18 months in his presidency, there were no casualties in the American military because Trump put the fear of destruction greater than what was done to the ISIS caliphate in Syria upon them if one member of our military was killed. Trump kept the state-of-the art military airport operational, and left 2,500 troops to protect the embassy in Kabul. Trump’s plan was to work with our allies in delivering all Americans, allied personnel, Afghanistan interpreters and others with visas who wanted to leave to do so before removing all troops and putting an end to the “endless war” with conditions as mentioned.

I don’t want another “goodie” from Biden’s box of chocolates, and am greatly concerned for our country if something isn’t done to stop Biden from further destroying America.

Martha Morrissy
Downey