To the editor:
Thank you for printing Dick Polman’s editorial. It prompted me to think and research the following 10 criteria of a good businessman: 1. taking risks; 2. taking initiative; 3. communication skills; 4. reliable and trustworthy; 5. adaptive to change; 6. ethical standards; 7. industriousness; 8. sound financial management; 9. know what you don’t know - rely on experts for information, counsel, and advice; 10. knowledge and foresight - trade, finance, marketing, and income tax laws.
His strengths appear to be in the first two criteria; however, it should be noted that he risks taxpayers’ dollars and dimes.
1. Good communication skills include listening, emotional control, and straight talking. His speeches delivered from prepared scripts differ from interviews. Have you heard/seen him use divisive language stereotyping, blaming, and belittling a huge percent of our citizenry – women, Hispanics, Asians, Afro-Americans, Muslims, immigrants? Do his interviews offer facts? Are they convoluted without facts?
2. Adaptive to changes requires ability to research and apply scientific findings. Do you recall he admonished citizens to drink bleach and to take a drug not approved for preventing COVID-19? He risked citizens’ lives. He publicly contradicted scientists’ knowledge and advice. Ignoring and refuting scientific facts, he placed our citizens in peril. More than a hundred thousand have died as a result.
3. Ethical standards include a social and moral responsibility to follow ethical standards of business. (Has he accepted responsibility for the COVID deaths?) DJT operates in the corporate world with other peoples’ money on the national and international scale. $3.9 million of our dollars and dimes pay for each of his 100 Mar-a-Lago trips. So far he has visited over 400 of his properties each requiring secret service though some also require Coast Guard and air transportation. He is the first President to funnel taxpayer and foreign money into his own pocket. Security and ethics questions abound. Has he violated the U.S. Constitution Emoluments Clause?
My additional information expands beyond the allotted wordage. Evaluating only three criteria leads me to believe the good businessman label is a myth.
Dolores Baker
Great Bend
