In praise of President Biden

I believe that when our elected leaders do something right, we ought to let them know it’s appreciated.

This past week the tone-deaf City Council of Washington, D.C., deservedly had the rug pulled out from under them after having made one of the stupidest decisions imaginable. These elected leaders for some unfathomable reason thought it would be a positive thing to make crimes, including violent crimes, more likely to be committed by D.C.’s criminal element.

The mayor, Muriel Bowser, who is no right-wing conservative, vetoed the measure but the council members overturned her veto. It wasn’t even close. The council voted 12-1 to block the mayor’s veto and subject the citizens and tourists to greatly increased danger at the hands of thugs and gangsters who already flaunt the current laws without apparent fear of law enforcement.

People in Congress, both Republicans and Democrats, united together to pass a measure blocking these new pro-criminal laws from going into effect. President Joe Biden, who could have vetoed the legislation and allowed the crime-friendly laws to go forward, chose not to do so. As a result, these asinine measures are dead in the water, at least for now. BRAVO, MR. PRESIDENT!

Members of Congress, and the President himself, have predictably been attacked by the so-called “woke” mob in and out of Congress. There are still plenty of people that don’t give one whit about the victims of crimes while, at the same time, standing up and making excuses for predators who prey on the law-abiding citizenry. What’s wrong with these people? I truly do not understand how they think.

In the nation’s cities where the crimes are rampant, victims are as likely to be minorities as anyone else. A few summers ago when criminal elements burned and looted some of the country’s great cities, many minority neighborhoods were affected and many businesses were devastated. Some businesses have chosen to abandon those neighborhoods for safer environs. And who can blame them? Many “mom and pop’ business, burned and ravaged, never re-opened. They couldn’t afford to.

One of the most crime-ridden cities in America, Chicago, sees innocent citizens killed very week. Finally, for the first time in history, a first-term mayor was kicked to the curb by weary voters believing that anybody would be better than Mayor Lori Lightfoot. People are moving out of New York City in droves partially due to the insecurity on the streets. Having elected a former police officer as their mayor, he seems stymied by prosecutors who fail to prosecute arrested alleged criminals.

What are people in these cities to do? Many of the worst cities, eaten up with crime, have the toughest anti-gun laws in the country. Since the police are reactive and not proactive, nothing can be done by the average citizen to protect him or herself when assaulted, robbed, raped, or murdered. Except stay home. Or move. Or hire private security, something that is provided by the taxpayers for many mayors, a protection denied to the average citizen.

Many of the fed-up people are moving south or west where taxes are lower and where citizens, except for felons, may legally possess and carry a firearm. There are nearly 400,000,000 firearms in America, most of these in the hands of law abiding people who will never fire a shot in anger. But jack their car, break into their homes, or pose a credible threat to them or their families, and the potential victim just might bite back.

But they don’t have that option in Chicago, New York, Washington, D.C., and a number of other cities in America. There, they must depend on their leaders, the police, and the prosecutors to protect them. But if the police are defunded and demoralized, the prosecutors cater to the criminals, and their leaders are incompetent, then something has to give. Or the goons rule while the bodies mount.

But somebody did do something this time around. A bipartisan coalition stepped in and a president bucked the radical wing of his party and some good was done. So, yes, Mr. President, thank you for caring about the good citizens of Washington and the millions of people who visit each year. Well done! You deserve praise for this courageous act.

To the citizens of these places, a question: How long are you going to continue to vote this type of person into local office? Someone once said, “We get the government we deserve.” No one deserves a government run by people who are unconcerned and unfeeling concerning the suffering of the innocent. Unless you keep voting them in. Then you get what you ask for.

[David Epps is the Rector of the Cathedral of Christ the King (www.ctk.life). Worship services are on Sundays at 10:00 a.m. and on livestream at www.ctk.life. He is the bishop of the Diocese of the Mid-South (www.midsouthdiocese.life). He may be contacted at davidepps@ctk.life.]