Ted Takamiya’s letter was much to the point (“Hearing was ‘politics without principles’,” Star-Advertiser, Oct. 13).

Another one of Mahatma Gandhi’s list of seven sins, “commerce without morality,” was on display recently when Donald Trump talked about continuing the billions of dollars in arms sales to Saudi Arabia despite the Saudi government’s apparent involvement in the disappearance and likely murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi.

Takamiya’s letter also brought back the memory of the tears flowing down my mother’s face when, in 1948, she read about Gandhi’s assassination. This humble woman in a Swiss mountain farming village felt a personal loss at the death of a faraway leader who championed the values she believed in.

By contrast, I doubt that our president ever knew or cared much about Gandhi’s values and principles of governance. His admiration seems to be more for the likes of Vladimir Putin and other murderous autocrats.

Trump’s statements and policies have brought our country’s moral compass, long admired by most of the world, into free fall.

Ursula Retherford

Kailua

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