Letter: What true leadership looks like

“A leader is as a leader does.” That simple sentence has often helped me identify the effectiveness or ineptitude of our leaders.

Compare our own Gov. Jay Inslee with New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo and our current president. The difference can be distinguished.

On April 11, The Columbian ran Dana Milbank’s devastating no-holds-barred editorial indictment of our current president, “This pandemic is Trump’s Vietnam.”

The current horrendous statistics speak for themselves. The United States has by far the most cases of any nation on Earth. In fact, we have more cases than the five hardest-hit European nations combined.

Did you hear what Ireland is doing? Ireland mitigated the coronavirus early on. They limited their deaths to only around 1,500. However, when they discovered that half of those deaths were in nursing homes and retirement centers, their government decided to do something dramatic. They called for added staff at every level at every facility at government expense. Talk about a compassionate, realistic approach to dealing with the pandemic.

“A leader is as a leader does.”