Letters to the Editor
Nita Martin
Published Letters: 271 Editor's Choice: 62
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There's more than one way to skin a cat
[Read the article: Secrets or lies, and maybe both]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Once again, Salon has pulled back the curtain, snuffled out the truffles, poked at the soft underbelly and illuminated the backdoor efforts of this administration to cover up its illegal dealings. Proving how utterly contemptuous of the truth these people are, and how frighteningly adept at finding new and innovative avenues of subterfuge. Imagine if they spent all that creative effort in actually moving the business of this nation ahead.
Do I see conspiracy in almost everything they do? How can you not? The dots are so easy to connect if you come from the perspective of their record to this point on the truth.
The rundown: Start an illegal war entirely at your own whim and in support of your own agenda. Instead of the War in Iraq, pretend it's the War on Terror. Use it as your justification for almost anything you want to do, including the illegal intrusion into the privacy of your own citizens. Use the law to cover your illegal activities by citing the War on Terror. It's a nice, neat and impenetrable circle of twisted logic.
Other presidents have launched wars. The War on Drugs, The War on Illiteracy, The War on Poverty. Like these, the War on Terror is a concept, not a military engagement, and it can't be used to gut the Constitution, bankrupt the country and tarnish its reputation. In all the hand-wringing that's going on in Washington, no one seems to be challenging the core basis of all these illegal dealings and the administration's attempts at lending legal status to the coverups. We have reached a point where Bush can do virtually anything and attribute it to the fact that we are "at war" with terror, putting us in a permanent state of constitutional lockdown.
Why don't we hear anyone saying that we shouldn't even be debating the specifics of these incidents? Why isn't Congress standing up and declaring this apple rotten at its very core? With the debacle in Iraq having been declared a victory over and over again, and with the newly formed government being hailed repeatedly by our fearless leaders as the onset of freedom, isn't the war in Iraq over? So where in any reasonable frame of reference do we stand as a country "at war", With a "wartime President" needing supreme powers?
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The nature of a relationship
[Read the article: My son, the stranger]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Ann..,
It isn't about you. It's the relationship between mothers and sons. Even the relationships between parents and children. It's heaven, then it's hell. Then, if you are as lucky as I am, it becomes a deeply caring relationship of peers who have life experiences, tastes and talents in common. It will always, however, be weighted a little more heavily on our side. It's the mothers curse and gift to love their children more than anything else on earth.
Your story is very familiar. It will pass. And by the way, it's almost always about a car.
Both my sons went to Iraq, and I was a wreck. My youngest was in the Marine Corps reserves and was deployed in the first wave. I was traveling and didn't get to say goodbye, and heard like a hard punch to the gut from his roommates that he was "gone" with only 48 hours notice.
Our last conversation had been an argument over a car I had given him, and found in the driveway squirting gas from the engine. When I got to the end of the driveway with it on the way to the auto shop, I found it had no brakes. So I put it on a trailer and took it home with me. Leaving him carless...which he had been anyway. He didn't see it that way. Then he was in harms way, and I was helpless.
I spent four months crying and retching. Hoping my last (my LAST!) conversation with him hadn't been an argument. I had the car fixed and gave it back to him when he returned. Today it's sitting in the driveway with a broken transmission. And I don't care. I don't mention it.
When my oldest was in high school, he carried around a book of "The Teenagers Civil Rights". I won't even go into details. He wrote "this is crap" on the cover of the "Tough Love" book a friend had given me. And now, I think he was right.
Today, he is my best friend. He has a lovely wife. We travel together, talk endlessly, and have a great mutual respect and admiration. He is a success, in spite of all my worries.
His brother is back in college. (Walking) And seems to have a plan. It's his plan, on his time.
I have learned that there is nothing you can do. NOTHING. It will all run it's course and they will either turn out ok, or they won't. It's up to them, not you. And you cannot change their course. You can only give them love and opportunity. And weather the storms.
It will be worth it. They almost all turn out ok, in spite of your angst. So just let go of the fear, the guilt, and imagine everything you both do now as just a passing phase, that can be erased by the life you will have as adult "friends." And don't do anything that will ever leave you afraid that the conversation you had was your "last".