By Mark Roye
I was born not long after my father returned from fighting fascism all the way up the Italian peninsula. American presidents, like those veterans, were very good role models for us children. They told us the truth about things that mattered. They weren’t adjudicated to have committed sexual assault while defaming their victim. They didn’t brag to TV hosts about such conquests. They were never convicted by a jury of extensive business fraud. Nor did they incite a mob to violently attack our Capitol and threaten our elected representatives. Not perfect, they at least aspired to be honorable men.
Until Richard Nixon. When Nixon breached that public trust, senators from his own party confronted him, forced him from office. These courageous, honorable men acted as their moral compass and duty directed.
None of us wish this authoritarian president to be a role model to our children. He’s destroyed medical research projects, upended university scientific programs, taken health care coverage from millions – including countless Alaskans, ridiculed the disabled, bullied anyone speaking out about his actions, used prosecutorial power to silence critics.
He seeks to destroy the world order that’s made us safe and prosperous throughout the entire term of my life. Now he proposes annexing Canada and Greenland.
Sen. Lisa Murkowski has shown the courage to oppose these depredations. Her honor demands no less.
But Sen. Dan Sullivan, a Marine officer, and former Attorney General who should well know that honor as well as Article I of our Constitution, demand that he evidence the same courage as Sen. Murkowski, stands mute.
Stands mute as incursions into a sovereign nation not only usurps his own power as a senator, but seeks cheap oil to Alaska’s fiscal detriment. Stands mute as ICE agents in battle dress uniforms terrorize hard working immigrants and kill citizens. Stands mute as we blindly race toward the destruction of NATO. Stands mute as science and medicine are abandoned. Stands mute as all aspects of honor that once were role models for our children are callously discarded.
His silence makes him complicit. His silence is his dishonor.
