Letters to the Editor
Retired Military Patriot
Published Letters: 2236 Editor's Choice: 11
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@Be-bop-o, Paul Dirks
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[Read more letters about this article: Here]First a quote for you great Art-ist.
"I love the dark hours of my being. / My mind deepens into them. / There I can find, as in old letters, / the days of my life, already lived, / and held like a legend, and understood." – Rilke
Paul: I don’t think it would be useful to get into a chicken-egg discussion. Your point about Christianity either teaching you to look within or outside is very valid. Closed minds are afraid to look within. Although I have dropped all organized religions, my Lutheran upbringing fortunately taught me to look within and forgive those who can’t.
To me, the bible is the work of men and the cultures they were raised in. It’s not surprising that there are contradictions especially considering the many years it took to compile it. People find what they want to find in it and that would be OK if there weren’t power hungry leaders who take advantage of their interpretations.
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What RWAs and neocons could learn if they listened to foreign leaders
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[Read more letters about this article: Here]While we are discussing what we can and can’t learn from a foreign leader, another leader, Evo Morales, president of Bolivia and the country’s first indigenous head of state since the Spanish Conquest, said some things well worth listening to on the Daily Show last night. The following is not an exact transcript:
Stewart- When you ran for president, you promised that you would: nationalize resources and help distribute some of the money to the poorer folks; convene a constitutional assembly; and institute agrarian reform. You did all of that in eight months after your election. What’s up with that?
Morales- Yes we were getting $300 million in oil resources and now we are getting more than $2 billion. Our lands were just in a few hands and now many people have access to the lands.
Stewart- How did you make the major landowners comfortable with these changes?
Morales- I told them we are building a multi-cultural, multi-national country and are trying to live in unity while respecting diversity. That we all need to come together so we can live united.
Stewart- People question you because you have visited Fidel Castro and work closely with the president of Venezuela.
Morales- The differences amongst nations must be respected. We have to get together and think about how we can come together to support human life.
At the UN we are talking about global warming. Perhaps it has to do with western culture, excesses in relation to industries, excessive in luxuries and consumption. I personally know that there are presidents who send troops to other countries to save lives and there are presidents who send troops to other countries to take away lives. The key guideline must be for us to find ways to save lives.
Instead of challenging the politics of a brave man who grew up in an adobe hut with a straw roof that was no more than three by four meters and fought his way to president to help the poor people he knows so well, the Bush Administration and neocons could learn a lot from him if they ever learned to listen.
And the most important would be not to attack Iran. Right guys who send troops to take away lives.
Here’s the Daily Show url, just click on most recent videos.
http://www.comedycentral.com/shows/the_daily_show/videos/most_recent/index.jhtml
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D'oz
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[Read more letters about this article: Here]I most certainly do.
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@WT
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[Read more letters about this article: Here]I wanted to disagree and then while using a little patience, I thought about Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
It seems that a lot of perhaps honest people (are you honest when you lie and deceive yourself?) have used the rationalization of the greater good without using sufficient patience and the wisdom of many other people especially those who disagree, before making that judgment.
Perhaps you are aware of some “leaders” who didn’t want outside advice and still don’t.
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@WT
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[Read more letters about this article: Here]Couldn’t agree more about how gray the world is and should be in all eyes not just ours. GWB honestly believes that he is saving democracy for the world and deserves a high place in the hereafter. Stubbornness, determination and often obsession are important skills in seeking the highest office in our land.
That is why I think voters need to judge, as hard as it is, the character and intentions of candidates. Judging from what we learned from the Bushdipoligarchy, it is valuable to also make the same judgment of the team and money around the candidate. Contrast the number of experts and the town hall like meeting of national experts on the economy that Bill Clinton used to make his decisions with GWB and his coterie of cult members and the efforts to stifle any opposing views or facts.
I think it comes down to open or closed minds and black and white or gray worlds.
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Oh for a president who can think like that
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[Read more letters about this article: Here]“I gave strict orders to the State Department that they should inform Israel that we would handle our affairs exactly as though we didn't have a Jew in America. The welfare and best interests of our own country were to be the sole criteria on which we operated.”
Ike, Nixon and Kennedy didn’t have to worry nearly as much about powerful lobbyists and election money. They had more freedom to make decisions based on what was best for America. We need an election system to give our representatives more freedom to serve our interests and the interests of other nations, especially Israel, better.
Israel has a history, probably due to a minority overriding the majority, of making decisions that are not in their best interests. For example, continuing to build settlements year after year and oppressing Palestinians while trying to find peace produced the opposite of what most Israelis wanted.
Both America and Israel have systems that are failing them.
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@Mona
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[Read more letters about this article: Here]You've been a riot today. Thanks.
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Especially if the roll down is
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[Read more letters about this article: Here]with your grandkids, after a rain in the rainbow's eye with butterflies zooming as escorts.