Trump’s Kennedy Center honor is undeserved

 On Thu, Jan 8, 2026 at 9:35 PM Max Obuszewski <Maxo-2@comcast.net> wrote:

Opinion https://www.baltimoresun.com/2025/12/29/trump-kennedy-rename/

 Trump’s Kennedy Center honor is undeserved | READER COMMENTARY

 New signage, The Donald J. Trump and The John F. Kennedy Memorial Center For The Performing Arts, is unveiled on the Kennedy Center, Friday, Dec. 19, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)

 I am grateful that besides my parents, the good School Sisters of Notre Dame taught that humility was a virtue. Somehow, Donald Trump, our nightmare president, missed that moral lesson. In his unquenched vanity, he has added his name to the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. It is doubtful that this move is legal (“Can name of Kennedy Center legally be changed for Trump? Democrats say no,” Dec. 19).

 One of John F. Kennedy’s major accomplishments came about during the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962. This was a remarkable achievement because the world teetered on the possibility of a nuclear war. Trump, instead, is engaging in a war with a small country in South America. And, those killed so far were not warriors but people who never had a chance to defend themselves in court.

The executive director of the Kennedy Center, Richard Grenell, said the “recent renaming … honors President Trump’s extraordinary efforts to save this national treasure.” Actually, since the takeover of the Kennedy Center, it is faltering as artists with a conscience are refusing to perform under Trump’s reign. The musician Chuck Redd is the latest performer who said no (“Kennedy Center criticizes musician who canceled performance after Trump name added to building,” Dec. 26). Let’s not forget — without congressional approval — Trump destroyed the East Wing of the White House. It is hard to contemplate, but his reign of terror may continue for another three years.

 — Janice Sevre-Duszynska, Towson

Donations can be sent to Max Obuszewski, Baltimore Nonviolence Center, 431 Notre Dame Lane, Apt. 206, Baltimore, MD 21212.  Ph: 410-323-1607; Email: mobuszewski2001 [at] comcast.net. Go to http://baltimorenonviolencecenter.blogspot.com/

"The master class has always declared the wars; the subject class has always fought the battles. The master class has had all to gain and nothing to lose, while the subject class has had nothing to gain and everything to lose--especially their lives." Eugene Victor Debs