Dear Editor,

On March 20, 2018 The Advocate-Messenger published a “Thumbs Up” on Boyle County’s efforts to stop the Kinder Morgan pipeline. As one of the people who has been “resisting” the pipeline for three years, I appreciated the sentiment. In reading the article, I found myself thinking about the efforts of others and myself in another “Resist” movement. Specifically I am referring to our efforts to resist Donald J Trump.

Some of the parallels between Trump and the K-M pipeline are rather striking. Both Trump and the pipeline are over 70 years of age. Both have been flowing in one direction for their entire lives and are now being asked to reverse their flow. In the case of the pipeline, it is not a good idea because, after all this time, a flow reversal may cause the pipeline to leak or even explode. In the case of Trump, reversal of his previous life’s direction relative to women and government institutions has proven to be impossible for the same reasons.

The pipeline was constructed at a time when there were few if any standards regarding the fabrication and manufacture of pipelines. Likewise, Trump grew up in a time when standards governing a wealthy white male’s socially acceptable behavior were ill-formed or nonexistent. Bringing either up to current-day standards has proven to be a time-consuming and expensive process. 

It has cost many members of the Trump Administration their jobs! 

In spite of the pipeline’s advanced age and condition, the people at FERC and PHMSA tell us not to worry because an old pipeline is just as good as a new one. Well, I’ve seen sections of the 100-1 pipeline that came out of the ground after 70-plus years and I can tell you they don’t look new to me. They look old and beat up and rusty.

Trump supporters tell us that his mental condition is superb. This in spite of the fact that he doesn’t read or believe anything that isn’t on Fox News. In describing his congratulatory phone call to Vladimir Putin, he repeated the statement, “We’ll be getting together soon” three times in less than a minute. Trust but verify! I’d like to see some mental testing done on the “Dotard” and I mean testing that measures more than whether he can detect the difference between a horse and a giraffe and tell time using a clock!

Jim Porter

Danville