United States Secretary of the Treasury Steven Mnuchin | January 11, 2018 (Official White House Photo by Andrea Hanks)
King’s dream is the American dream
Today, President Donald J. Trump will sign the official proclamation making this Monday, January 15, the “Martin Luther King Jr. Federal Holiday.” This year marks the first time in more than a decade that the federal holiday falls on King’s actual birthday.
Here is an advance look at what the President will tell Americans today:
- Reverend King preached love throughout his life—love for each other, for our fellow Americans, and for humanity. That is what drove his work.
- We celebrate King first and foremost for standing up for the self-evident truth Americans hold so dear: No matter the color of our skin, or the place of our birth, we are ALL created equal by God.
- This April will mark half a century since King was cruelly taken from us by an assassin’s bullet. As we mourn his loss, we also pledge to fight for his dream of equality, freedom, justice, and peace.
‘We need to do more than simply remove people’
“America has 5 percent of the world’s population, but we have 25 percent of the world’s incarcerated,” Texas Public Policy Foundation President Brooke Rollins told reporters before a meeting with President Trump on prison reform yesterday.
The White House meeting comes as part of the Administration’s effort to improve the U.S. prison system. It brought together prison reform experts—including two governors who are leading the charge at the state level.
Governors Matt Bevin (R-KY) and Sam Brownback (R-KS) walked through how their states have implemented changes in the correctional system, focusing on how to help prisoners become productive contributors to society upon release.
“We’ll be very tough on crime, but we will provide a ladder of opportunity to the future,” President Trump said.
Read more: “We need to do more than simply remove people from society.”
‘More dangerous than they’ve ever been’
Earlier this week, President Trump signed the INTERDICT Act, a bipartisan effort to provide Customs and Border Protection officers with the equipment needed to detect fentanyl—“our new big [drug] scourge,” the President said.
“In 2016, nearly 20,000 Americans died as a result of using synthetic opioids such as fentanyl,” he continued. “The drugs, for a lot of reasons, are far more dangerous than they’ve ever been.”
“It’s something that is absolutely urgent. It’s the number one killer now, in terms of overdoses, in . . . Massachusetts,” Sen. Rob Portman (R-OH) said. “And, unfortunately, over the past several years, it has increased every single year.”
Watch: President Trump Signs INTERDICT Act to Improve Opioid Screening Technology.
POTUS TODAY
This morning, President Trump will sign a proclamation to honor Dr. Martin Luther, King Jr. Day. Later, the President will receive his annual physical exam at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center.Vice President Mike Pence will participate in a phone call with Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki of Poland.
No comments:
Post a Comment
Authors of comments and posts are solely responsible for their statements. Please email MiddletownInsider@gmail.com for questions or concerns. This blog, (and any site using the blogger platform), does not and cannot track the source of comments. While opinions and criticism are fine, they are subject to moderator discretion; slander and vile attacks of individuals will not to be tolerated. Middletown Insider retains the right to deny any post or comment without explanation.