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Editor, News-Register:
In the Bible, a generation seems to be a span of 40 years. Is the same time span still apropos to this era? Consider this: it has been 40 years between the end of the Carter administration and the swearing in of Joe Biden as President of the United States of America. Jimmy Carter served from 1977 to 1981. Mr. Biden was sworn-in in January 2021. Carter facts: 1976-1978, inflation rose from 5.8% to 7.9%; in 1979 inflation reached 11.9%; in 1980 inflation reached 13.5%. President Carter consented to a Chinese invasion of Vietnam. He proposed withdrawing from South Korea. He approved CIA meddling in Afghanistan by aiding Pakistan. Most sad was the handling of the Iran hostage crisis that followed the ousting of the Shah of Iran by Muslim Clerics.
Most memorable to me were the high interest rates generated by the rampant inflation. I was in my early 30s. I had worked hard and saved money. When I tried to start my own business, I was thwarted by the 20% interest rates banks were charging on business loans. I went back to work for several years before I could accomplish my dream. I was fortunate to be among those able to earn a decent living.
I never dreamed that I would live to see a repeat of a Carter-style administration, but we may be living it today. President Biden took office 40 years after Jimmy. Now my grandchildren will get to experience a similar national degradation as did I. I can only pray that we have less inflation and world tensions will be less now than then.
President Biden appears to be as poorly prepared to guide our foreign policy as was Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain, the pre-World War II leader of Great Britain. He thought that Adolf Hitler had good intentions and an honest nature. That naivete and misguided foreign policy cost the world many lives and national fortunes. Russian President Putin seems to be following that 1939 Hitler playbook.
Whether Mr. Biden is naive, misguided, or even has selfish motives for his present domestic and foreign actions, let's hope he will change direction. God bless America and God help Ukraine.
Charles R. Fox
Wheeling