Letters to the Editor
llyonnoc
Published Letters: 15
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The Road to Sorrow
[Read the article: Lewis Libby owes his freedom to our corrupt political elite]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]It is as pointed out in the article. Like it or not, Nixon with his break in, Ford with his pardoning of Nixon, Reagan with his Iran/Contra fiasco, and Clinton with his debasing the Presidency and his kiss good bye – the pardoning of persons who did not deserve pardons but had rich friends set the stage for Bush. Bush took the ball and ran with it, abetted by Cheney, believing he truly answered to only his conscience and not the laws of America. Cheney too believed he is not only above the law but he is the law in the one branch of government not covered by the checks and balance, the Legexecancy.
One brick of a president piling upon another so that we reached the height (or depths) noted by Glenn Greenwald. We now have a wounded and highly unpopular president secure in himself and his decisions and believing he is only answerable to a Higher Power that he will meet at some point in the future. There is another president that is wounded and highly unpopular secure in himself and believing he is only answerable to a Higher Power: Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
Each one believes the other is Evil incarnate. Is there any doubt that in the days ahead we will be fighting to show that Higher Power that the president will not rest until he has destroyed that evil. Norman Podhoretz tells us: "George W. Bush, a man who knows evil [Ahmadinejad's intent to bring about a second Holocaust] when he sees it. . . . It now remains to be seen whether [he] . . . will find it possible to take the only action [going to war with Iran] that can stop Iran from following through on its evil intentions both toward us and toward Israel." (Podhoretz was a guest of Bush at the White House in February.)
We no longer have any way to stop a mad man in the White House. The press corps is too anxious to be part of the social mix; the courts too slow to act (over 5 years Gitmo prisoners languish without hearings); the legislature too timid to offend; the people happy that Paris is free on the eve of the All Star game; and the vice-president living a in closed world of his own invention
Even if we don't invade Iran, the situation in America will only get worse. America is becoming all war all the time. We are on the cusp of a dictatorship.
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I Wonder What Became of Women
[Read the article: The paranoid withdrawal fantasy]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Camille: I noticed that all the persons whose letters you answer were men. I thought that strange. Do women write to you with questions? I've always enjoyed your writings. I agree with you much of the time but I am amazed at your ability to discuss movies since I have the inability to remember who is who an hour after I watch one. I thought it interesting that you mentioned Madonna was an Italian American. I did not know that. If I had a choice to be among any women, it would be Italian women, even Italian American women, no less. It is the combination of the Catholic background mixed with the innate irreverence and the 'whatever happens happens' attitude and their ability to have survived and prospered all these years in spite of having to deal with Italian men that makes them wonderful. Just a few thoughts/
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Whether Anti-American
[Read the article: The difference between Jeremiah Wright and radical, white evangelical ministers]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]So who is an anti-American?
The preachers of the far right want an America that is free from gays, abortionists, gun-taker-awayers, and smut in general. So when they preach, as a result of their unique relationship to God, they tell us that unless we change our ways then we will continue to suffer God's wrath. They do not like present day America. They want to go back to an America of the past which was sort of like today's Iran, a country that had no gays, no abortions, and no laws against guns. (Makes one wonder why they are so intent on bombing Iran.)
The preachers of the black church like Rev. Wright want to talk about an America that they see as being engulfed in poverty, discrimination, and intolerance. When they preach, they use the bible likening things that may have happened three thousand years ago with today's events. They tell us that anything bad that happens to America is not because of what we are doing today, but because of what we have done in the past. They do not like the America of the past with its Tuskegee Syphilis studies, racism, and separate but equal accomodations. They don't want to go back; they want to go forward to an America that never existed.
There are, therefore, two different philosophies. One that says America is being punished by God because of its present activities; the other that says because of its past activities.
Because we can not correct the past, it is painful for many Americans (the majority) living in comfort as a result of these past sins to be reminded about them. Therefore, for them, those that do must be anti-American.
Because some view the past as one horror piled upon another, it is painful for them (a particular minority) to hear about how good America was during those bad days. Therefore, for them, to speak of such an America is anti-American.
In truth, none of it is anti-American. It is what America is all about: the right to express an opinion (Freedom of Speech) and the right to follow what ever opinion one finds most pleasing (Freedom of Assembly/Religion)