What is a statesman?

According to Gary Trudeau, a statesman might be a republican or democrat, white or black, Latino or Asian, doesn’t matter. He’s far from perfect, like anyone else. He makes mistakes, gets frustrated, sometimes loses his temper.

But here’s what else he is; He’s nice, civil, serious, thoughtful, idealistic, honest, coherent.

He’s educated, but humble about what he doesn’t know, so he reads, listens, prepares, works hard. He values kindness, is empathetic, grateful, patriotic and cherishes ALL our institutions, particularly our free press. He worships a loving God.

These things are what you’d expect in any statesman, and would hope for in any politician, especially a president.

Part of our citizenry elected a “non-politician” because they didn’t see the above character traits in politicians. But we didn’t get a statesman. Let’s do better next time.

Ron Boothe,

Kingston