Letters to the Editor
Saleem
Published Letters: 19 Editor's Choice: 4
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Yes, addiction IS a disease
[Read the article: My beautiful, drug-addicted boy]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]To those who claim addiction is not a disease: your statements run counter to the evidence believed by the vast majority of scientists who study addiction. Drugs alter the brain in debilitating and very permanent ways. So does cancer of the brain (although of course what cancer does to the brain and what drugs do are totally different). It is as heartless to state that addiction is not a disease as to state that cancer is not a disease.
One thing I should make clear, however, is that even if addiction is a disease, it is not an excuse. Calling it a diseased is not a ploy to beg forgiveness for the son's despicable actions while in search of drugs. It is a statement of fact that leads to the logical conclusion that the only way to deal with an addict is to treat him, once he wants to be treated. I do not think that the father and son described in this article use addiction as an excuse. I also don't think they published their memoirs out of self-aggrandizement. They know how much it helps someone in their situation to know that others are going through the same thing. That is called being part of a community, not blowing your horn just to become famous.
Other letter-writers have pointed out some of the father's behaviors that might have led to the son's addiction, but I put myself in that father's shoes, and I am not convinced I would have done much differently - with the exception, which may be key, of staying with my child's mother and not engaging in behaviors that would precipitate a separation. Nevertheless, I can't overcome the feeling that the father did everything he could, and that if I ever find myself in his situation, I would be just as helpless. For a parent, that thought is not just discomforting. It is frightening.
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Rock on, Barak!
[Read the article: Obama's speech on race]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]That was one of the most eloquent, straight-forward, even-handed, and powerful discussions of race and racism in America I have ever read. I am bursting with pride to call myself an Obama supporter. Never, in 20 years of voting, have I felt this way about any politician.
I look forward to the great things we, as a nation, can accomplish under the leadership of President Obama.
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Obama and Israel
[Read the article: Obama's speech on race]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I want to address some of the comments here regarding Obama's statements in support of Israel. As an American of Arab descent, I think we spend way too much money and world political capital on Israel, and I think American presidents have not done enough to pressure Israel to treat the Palestinians like human beings. But Obama is correct that the problems in the Middle East are not all of Israel's making. There is not a single liberal society in the Arab world. Arab leaders pander to hatred based on religion and resentment. And Palestinian attacks do kill Israelis. These facts add to conflict.
Obama can't do anything about the political reality that you can't get elected around here without wrapping yourself in the blue and white flag. But even in Israel there are those who think a little more pressure from Washington would help solve the logjam - to Israel's lasting benefit as well as the Palestinians'. Are we going to get that pressure from McCain, who seems to want to out-Bush Bush? Or from Clinton, who will probably be so distracted trying to fend off Republicans in Congress that she will have little time for Israel/Palestine?
Or will that pressure come from Obama, a man who seems to posess fairness as part of his constitutional make-up? A man who, in the speech he just made, showed how empathetic to both sides of a passionate issue he can be? A man who is not afraid to talk without preconditions even to our so-called "enemies"?
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Who cares what the pastor says, as long as Obama doesn't believe it?
[Read the article: Obama's speech on race]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]This is from clbrune a few pages ago:
"The telling thing is that he now admits he was fully aware of his Pastor's attitudes. Yet he stayed in the same church for 20 year, let the pastor perform his wedding and baptize his children.
"A real leader would have chosen a church more consistent with the teachings of Jesus, instead of giving this fanatic a wink and a nod."
OK, what's the conclusion we are supposed to draw from this? That Obama can't lead his country because his pastor said some nasty things and Obama didn't immediately switch churches? That is absurd. We all know people who say offensive things on occasion, and yet have a lot to offer 99.9% of the time. Are we supposed to disown them? It is not as if Wright spewed this vitriol every Sunday and Obama meekly listened for 20 years, nodding his head in agreement.
Wright was letting his anger get away with him. If you haven't occasionally thought to yourself, "damn the USA," then you think only very occasionally. I admire Obama for staying in a congregation where different and radical ideas, even crazy ones, are at least aired and discussed. Would you rather your president be incurious and easily fooled (by, for instance, his monster vice president), or would you rather that he have the courage, curiosity and intellect to listen to all ideas and make up his own mind?