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My uncle, Benjamin Holzman, was one of the meteorologists who advised Gen. Dwight Eisenhower to schedule D-Day on June 6, 1944. Even though all weathermen did not agree with this call, it’s hard to imagine President Franklin Roosevelt entering the debate over weather conditions in the English Channel in June.
It’s dismaying to learn that our current president somehow concluded he was qualified to play the role of a weatherman with regard to Hurricane Dorian and then incorrectly informed the public that Dorian could strike Alabama.
The National Weather Service (NWS) in Alabama promptly — and properly — corrected that inaccurate statement. But then Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross, who has purview over the NWS, and reportedly under pressure from the White House, threatened to fire leaders of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) if they did not endorse Trump’s half-baked forecast.
NOAA issued a statement that NWS in Alabama should not have corrected the president’s forecast. My conclusion: We have a government in which ego and narcissism trumps facts.
John C. Holzman
Manoa
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