Leonard Pitt's column on the 9/11 attackers---effectively giving them the significant finger---helped him to win the Pulitzer Prize on Commentary. http://www.miamiherald.com/opinion/opn-columns-blogs/leonard-pitts-jr/article1928716.html This is his open letter to President Trump Dear Mr. So-Called President: You were elected as chief executive of the United States. And this does entitle you to certain things. You get your own airplane. You get free public housing. You get greeted with snappy salutes. And a band plays when you walk into the room. But there is one thing to which your election does not entitle you. It does not entitle you to do whatever pops into your furry orange head without being called on it or, should it run afoul of the Constitution, without being blocked. You and your team seem to be having difficulty understanding this. Three weeks ago, your chief strategist, Steve Bannon, infamously declared that news media should “keep its mouth shut and just listen for a while.” Just last Sunday, senior policy adviser Stephen Miller declared on CBS’ “Face The Nation” that “our opponents, the media and the whole world will soon see as we begin to take further actions, that the powers of the president to protect our country are very substantial and will not be questioned.” Lord, have mercy. That’s the kind of statement that, in another time and place, would have been greeted with an out-thrust palm and a hearty “Sieg heil!” Here in this time and place, however, it demands a different response: Just who the hell do you think you are? You’re not an emperor, Mr. So-Called President. You’re a “public servant” — in effect, an employee with 324 million bosses. And let me tell you something about those bosses. They’re unruly and loud, long accustomed to speaking their minds without fear or fetter. And they believe power must always answer to the people. That’s at the core of their identity. Yet you and your coterie of cartoon autocrats think you’re going to cow them into silence and compliance by ordering them to shut up and obey? Well, as a freeborn American, I can answer that in two syllables flat. Hell no. http://www.miamiherald.com/opinion/opn-columns-blogs/leonard-pitts-jr/article132721909.html
