Quote of the Week...from Don Vito Corleone

Never let anyone outside the family know what you're thinking.      ---Don Vito Corleone

Don Corleone, always the patriarch in his male-dominated culture, had another, related saying: I spent my whole life trying not to be careless. Women and children can afford to be careless, but not men. Mind you, he's not real, but rather the product of The Godfather author Mario Puzo's vivid imagination...enhanced by the acting abilities of Marlon Brando, under the direction of Francis Ford Coppola. You might think it a little absurd for me to be quoting an organized crime boss who never existed, but I have a reason.  And it has a lot to do with the current occupant of the White House...

A few days ago President Trump met with lawmakers to discuss how to handle immigration issues, something that has been forefront in the news recently.  According to senator Dick Durbin, the only Democrat present, Trump was very profane and repeatedly referred to African nations as "s...hole countries"...he expressed that it would be better to bring more people in from Europe.  After that revelation was made public, all sorts of charges of racism were levied against Trump.  Although that in itself is worth discussing, I'd like to bring up a different point: is being totally transparent and open with one's feelings all the time and around anyone such a good idea? The Godfather obviously would strongly beg to differ...and so would I...

A little while ago I learned that folks with extraverted personalities tend to mentally process their thoughts differently than do introverts like myself.  One striking difference is that extroverts will often talk out their thoughts and work things out for themselves in conversation with others while introverts will more cautiously consider the impact of anything they might say before opening their mouths.  So it's no surprise that introvert Vito Corleone would sharply admonish his very extroverted son Santino with the above quote about keeping one's thoughts safely within the confines of the family.  Unfortunately, not only doesn't our current president grasp this important principle of developing his thoughts with his most trusted associates and family before presenting the product to others, but he is constantly tweeting out his impulsive reactions to anything he picks up on TV...leaving his own handpicked officials and congressional allies scurrying around trying to figure out where he stands on anything and practicing political damage control.  And, of course, if he's not careful and says something nasty in the presence of a political adversary like Durbin...well, that's just foolish carelessness on his part...

This idea of a closed or even secret meeting in which the participants are mum to the public about what was said and the independent press is barred is not only a bad idea when it involves our elected officials...it's actually ILLEGAL in my home state of Florida, which has a "Government in the Sunshine" law prohibiting any such closed meetings...even down to the local government level.  But when Trump or Obama or Bush or Clinton,...or our U.S. senators and/or representatives...want to do this, that's somehow okay?  I don't think so.  Sure, there are sometimes issues of national security that involve classified matters: I get that, but I think that one of the problems with our national government...and why people at large trust it so little...is that too many powerful people are operating under hidden agendas and that their loyalties are not directed at serving the American people but rather special interests: closed meetings only intensify that perception...