Letters to the Editor
inkredulous
Published Letters: 68 Editor's Choice: 6
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IMPloding GOP one can only Hope!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!11
[Read the article: The GOP on the verge of imploding]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]An interesting history and analysis of major politics in America. Whether the GOP will fade off into the sunset where it so richly deserves to go remains to be seen. What is amazing is the focus of the citizens of America that allows such people as GWB and Dick Cheney to be put into office. What confounds me is that potential voters (assuming those who turn up at presentations by the candidates are going to vote) seem to be entirely focused on minutiae and ignorant or unconcerned of major issues. Flag pins, 3 am phone calls, rantings of evangelical ministers, Bosnian landings and time in the Hanoi Hilton are really irrelevant in dealing with an possibly un-winnable war, the potential of food shortage, global climate change, the complete destruction of viable habit for man as well as other sentient beings, an extremely costly but ineffective healthcare citizen and a public education system that is 2nd or third rate.
Neither politicians nor voters seem to be concerned with the status of America on the world stage. Once upon a time America was almost universally viewed as a nation of people who were generous, giving and concerned with those who believed in democracy and freedom to the people.
The demise of the GOP may be the only hope that America has of returning to its roots, supposedly enshrined in the Constitution and Bill of Rights. The other option may well be to do as Rome did, a dictatorship followed by a long slow decline and ultimately disappearance from the world stage.
one can only hope that the electorate will awake and work to return America to its former significance!
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Racial bias in the death penalty
[Read the article: Racial bias in the death penalty ]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I'm not a lawyer (thank the gods) but I have been around long enough to know that in even the most severe crime situations there is latitude and sometimes a lot of latitude in what charges can be laid. Has anyone stopped to consider whether or not the charges laid were identical or at least very similar for similar crimes committed by the two racial groups? Personally I doubt it very much. I wonder if the 5 young men charged in the Jena 6 case would have been charged the same if they had been white.Not likely in my mind! The recent acquittal of the 3 policemen in the wedding day murder of Sean Bell suggests a similar inequality of justice based on skin color. To attempt to deny that there is racial bias in charging and sentencing is ludicrius and calls into question the inteleigence of the the reader or viewer!
I remember Rosa Parks, Emit Till and Gov Orval Faubus. All those events less than 60 years ago. Some of the principals are still alive. It is unreasonable to expect that attitudes prevalent in those times have done a complete about turn. Remarks by Jeremiah Wright unfortunately suggest prejudice is alive and well on both sides.
Perhaps the time is right for the election of a black president who does not carry all the baggage of the white establishment in his political agenda sack!
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Brian Williams' "response" to the military analyst story
[Read the article: Brian Williams' "response" to the military analyst story]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]with the possible exception of Jon Stewart and Steven Colbert the whole American media's handling of the Iraqi Fiasco would be a farce except that misguided but patriotic young men and women and some not so young are giving up life and limb for something the rest of the country seems to be highly indifferent about. From the night Baghdad was first bombed the news coverage has been a travesty.
Right from the beginning news media only got "access" to "news" if they were "embedded with fighting units. For all intents and purposes they might just have well sat in DC,NY or Atlanta and massaged the copy the military gave thhem.
The real questions such as; how many many young men & women have been maimed to the point they are permanently incapacitated, how many military personnel suffer mental breakdown, committed suicide, were arrested for breach of military law or died accidentally have never been asked or answered. As to military "contractors' of whom there are apparently hundreds of thousands, what sort of casualty rates were they suffering? what were the civilian casualty rates? What was the real cost of the war?
The way Generals were/are being swapped in and out suggests that either there is a great deal of incompetence or there is a scheme afoot to give as many as possible combat time to better their pensions.
The idea that a much be-medaled retired general is a good source of critical analysis is silly. Most of the medals are for putting in appearances at various theaters of operations or in the case of purple hearts being successfully treated for bleeding hemorrhoids.
One thing is patently obvious; the military certainly learned from their Vietnam experience when it comes to media coverage. There is no more live footage, free roaming reporters or scenes of America's bravest being savagely mutilated and dying on camera. Even the sight of those who gave everything and are returning coffins is verboten.
Perhaps a new president will have the moral fortitude to tell and show the truth of how ugly and needless the Iraq war really is!