Letter to the Editor - A letter to U.S. Sen. Steve Daines, R-Mont.

Arthur Eugene Beckes sent a letter to Sen. Steve Daines Dec. 21 and allowed the Havre Daily News to reprint it here

Sen. Daines,

The Trump administration has lost Jim Mattis, a reasonable man in a post that absolutely requires reason. If this doesn’t alarm you, it should.

Big numbers of competent people will no longer consider working with the misfit in the White House, as you are aware. Why would they? The closer anyone gets to this excuse for a leader, the more likely they are to get burned. So our nation is in a quandary.

You could have done something before now, but you’ve chosen the pathetic path of passivity. The U.S. Senate, once the greatest deliberative body on the face of the earth, has forsaken its mission. You’re a part of that colossal undoing. Why make yourself uncomfortable with any difficult moral or political decision?

You’ll soon have another “easy” choice, that of deciding to confirm or reject the president’s pick for secretary of defense. If the man or woman he choses is someone who looks to be a “hawk,” or incompetent in the slightest, you must reject the nomination. Our country’s very survival is at stake, senator.

Toughen up. Do your job.

Arthur Eugene Beckes

St. Ignatius