By: Keith Kappes
Columnist
Carter County Times
A teacher in New York City sat down in 1936 and put his 24 years of experience teaching business education into a self-help book entitled “How to Win Friends and Influence People.”
His name was Dale Carnegie and his book has sold more than 30 million copies worldwide, making it one of the best-selling books of all time. After 90 years of sales, it is likely to go on forever.
However, that book apparently never appeared in the Fred Trump household or became required reading in the prep schools or Ivy League university that his son Donald attended.
I base that statement on the fact that President Trump seems to be working overtime in alienating some of America’s best friends in the world and even in our own hemisphere.
This latest dustup about changing the name of Lake Ontario to Lake America is a perfect example of abandoning our mutual interests with the likes of Canada, perhaps America’s strongest ally through 250 years of our existence as a nation.
The Canadians, still upset over Trump’s lingering suggestion to make that sovereign nation our 51st state, are just as defiant about the name of the largest of the Great Lakes.
In fact, the premier of the province of Ontario had a sign erected this week on their side of the big lake that reads “Lake Ontario, forever.”
I also liked what the governor of New York said about responding to Trump in kind by renaming the U.S. side of the lake, most of which lies within New York State, as “Lake Obama.”
In case you haven’t noticed, the first round of tariffs imposed on Canadian goods have had a major negative impact on bourbon and other booze produced in Kentucky. The new tariffs will have the same effect on our automotive economy.
At the current rate of closing or reducing operations at our distilleries and craft breweries, the folks at thoroughbred tracks will have to learn how to make mint juleps with moonshine and football and baseball fans could be drinking home-brewed beer.
Contact Keith at keithkappes@gmail.com.
