Choices

There is always a choice.

"My head's made up. You can't confuse me with the facts." -- Chester A. Riley

   Administration officials are facing what for many is a tough decision -- whether to stay on the job and accept or tolerate the racist rantings of the nation's chief executive, attempt to change his mind and persuade him to speak for all Americans rather than focus on his base of rabid supporters, or resign and walk away, thus leaving an opening for the Bigot in Chief to add more True Believers to his corps of advisor/supporters.
   In addition to the pressure brought by the president's comments on the violence in Charlottesville, there is the report that the government will cut back on protection of federal parks in favor of mining and other commercial use of forest land.
   The latest is a move by the administration to recast the terms used to describe global warming, to dull the edge of the realities and make it seem like there is no danger to what is happening. That all the scientists are wrong. That the report that permafrost in Alaska is no longer permanent is untrue. That the historic record of increases in temperatures over time is false.
   As it is, an increasing number of experts and advisors are heeding their moral principles, Constitutional and legal obligations, and are resigning.
   All 17 members of an advisory committee on the arts and humanities resigned, and the first letter of each paragraph of their resignation document spelled out the word "RESIST."
   Several members of the council on manufacturing resigned, prompting the president to disband the council before the tide of resignations was complete.
   On Friday, the science envoy to the State Department resigned, citing the president's comments on the violence in Charlottesville. The letter by Daniel Kammen followed the pattern set by the Arts and Humanities Council, with the first letter of each Kammen paragraph spelling out the word IMPEACH.
  Several members of the president's infrastructure advisory council have also resigned.
  Gary Cohn, the White House economic advisor, openly criticized the president's anti-Semitic and racist equivocations about the Charlottesville incidents, and reportedly drafted a resignation letter because of the president's comments.
   In every difficult situation, people have to decide whether to change it, learn to live with it, or leave it.
   Wisdom is in knowing the difference.