Letters to the Editor
Ben Sen
Published Letters: 541 Editor's Choice: 98
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Restoring Honor to America
[Read the article: The collapse of Bush's foreign policy]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]You can extend the premise of the article to include the collapse of the entire Bush government. How many folks are left who want to put fifteen months or a year on their resume of working in the most despised administration in modern history--and becoming yet another fall guy for it?
They never had a foreign policy in the Keenan mode. They never wanted the United States to practice diplomacy. The worst part of the debacle is how few true allies the United States now has in the world community. Who is it that really wants to sit down with anyone from the Bush administration to seek peace?
Rice seems somehow occupied in the Middle East, and I believe a summit is planned, but one suspects too little, too late. Even if she now is less fearful of Cheney, she still won't come out against him and save face--so what's the point?
The salient dialogue already seems to be what will be realistic for the next president. The partition of Iraq is a done deal in every opinion maker's mind I've seen who isn't a neo-con, not to mention Joe Biden, the head of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. That's how easy they are to spot.
The opportunists on the local level have begun a "bring the troops home" chant but the question now is really one of responsibility. Bring them home and allow what to happen? Unlike past wars, the US started this bloodbath. What will that do to any credibility this country wishes to achieve on the world stage again in the next generation? (This is apart from the issue of basic human dignity given the likelyhood of large scale genocide.)
It boils down to this next election and seeing to it the right person gets into office. If the Dems allow themselves to pander too much to the anti-Bush sentiment and join the stampede I'm not sure that will enjoin much confidence when the day of reconing comes--and the decisions are made that try to restore honor to the nation.
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Why Is This Interesting?
[Read the article: A very familiar story about Rudy]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]It's a dicey issue because it's guilt by association, and I wouldn't like it leveled against me--would you?
Of course, I'm not running for President, (and that is the case) but I am from New York, otherwise known as Sodom. (San Francisco gets to be Gomorrah in this interpretation.) If we were more evolved, like France, it wouldn't be an issue, but I'm afraid in this country it is. No wonder the quality of our officeholders is so low.
Will Rudy lead to the split between the traditional "country club" Republicans and the fundies? That's what makes it very interesting indeed.
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Having A Life
[Read the article: "Schmucks with Underwoods"]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]This fanciful history doesn't explain why every Tom, Dick, and Dorothy who can put two words together (before and after film school) wants to be a screenwriter. Compared to other "writing" forms it's not especially challenging. Try writing plays, novels, or poetry--the media that most demonstrates ones capacity with the written word--and the screenwriters are the most fortunate of the lot.
The mere fact that they have a union and somebody who cares (they hope) if they walk out puts them in another category. Look at all those sit-coms that need jokes--all the internet sites that need film critics, all the grad schools that need teachers, all the re-writes nobody uses but they still pay good money for. (And yes, there is always advertising.)
If it wasn't for the fact they're fellow writers, I wouldn't have much sympathy. They know what they're getting into. It is not and never was a writer's media--unless you do the Woody Allen route, or the Europeans, or the Indies who give one at least a little hope that God is not totally evil.
Try acting, directing, nepotism, or marrying a rich spouse if you are serious about getting into the movies and still having a life.
P.S. Did I mention journalists--the hardest working/lowest paid of the lot if they didn't go to the right schools and can't play dumb to get a corporate gig.
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Minds to Admire
[Read the article: Journalism and its discontents]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]It's more like a small book than an internet article Sidney, but I enjoyed it.
I only have one small question: What would Mr. Lippman make of the American press and Israel? Not at the beginning, before the demons took over--but now--when the goods are on the table, the oppression horrific and irrefutable, and the complicity of the media in this country a mockery of the First Amendment that has gone on for far too long.
I say this having been duped myself for many years. I didn't want to believe it. I wanted to believe a people wouldn't do to another what was basically done to them, but I was wrong--and I didn't speak out--or the few times I did I backed down.
It is a matter of conscience, just as Lippmann's protests were. It seems the liberal "bias" is always the most fragile, and yet attracts the minds of those who deserve to be admired. The only problem is that by then the issues are history, and it's too late to do anything about them.