Will voters consider question of character?

Many years ago, I had the opportunity to learn a little bit about leadership as a 20-year-old second lieutenant at the Infantry Officer School at Ft. Benning, Georgia. A very impressive young major, who was decorated for valor in Vietnam, said something to us that I have never forgotten. He told us that trust and respect must be earned in order to be an effective leader in the military or anyplace else. He said without character, you will never earn either one. One of my fellow junior officers asked the major to define character for us. Without hesitation he responded that character is doing the right thing, even when nobody is watching. That is something I never forgot.

To me those words epitomize General Patton, Presidents Truman, Eisenhower and H.W. Bush, as well as two leaders that I worked directly for: Rob Krebs, CEO of Santa Fe Railway & BNSF Corp, and Dan Wunsch, Associate Dean in the College of Business at NIU. One other very special leader that it is my privilege to know is Senior Pastor John Nelson at Hosanna Lutheran Church in St. Charles.

So, that brings me to President Donald Trump. On the one hand, he has done good things for our economy and created many jobs for all Americans across the board. And he is certainly tough enough to challenge the status quo in D.C., and that is a good thing in my opinion.

He will likely survive the Senate impeachment trial and perhaps be reelected in November, given the weakness of the Democratic opposition. But, I can't help but wonder if his lack of character, and the absence of earned trust and respect, might still be his undoing in the end.

Russ Hagberg

Elgin