Given the current occupant of the White House and given the recent flurry of support for entertainer Oprah Winfrey to run for president in 2020, perhaps it is a good idea to look back to 1997 and the movie “The American President,” with Michael Douglas in the starring role. At the end of the movie, he (as President Andrew Shepherd) gives a speech in which he twice says “We have serious problems and we need serious people to solve them.”

True, then; certainly just as true, now.

Sadly, it seems that, in these mediocre times, we have a dearth of such people.

Terence McManus, New Sharon