Letters to the Editor
Rambling Rose 22
Published Letters: 957 Editor's Choice: 8
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IT GETS MORE STUPID - NOT ROUGHER
[Read the article: The Clinton-Obama contest gets rougher]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Now, comes the part where both campaigns get stupid and Both Emperors Have No New Clothes. Of course, the person who gets hurt the most is him because he's been all about the "new" and she's been about the "do."
We expect this of the Clintons. They have learned nothing by now if not to fight back and scratch back at whomever attacks them. Call it lessons from 8 years and millions of dollars of deliberate, calculated, trumped up, political attacks from a GOP-controlled Congress, ending with a laughable Impeachment for marital infidelity. Did Obama really think he would be immune from the Clintons? Does anyone?
Nope, Obama can't mix it up in this racial tug-of-war or he comes off as looking just like every other candidate who has ever run a competitive race for President. And Obama just can't look "regular" or even "normal" lest he jeopardize his Messiah message.
And by the way, JFK wanted the Civil Rights Act passed but died before he could do it. LBJ was the white face that sat in the Oval Office at that time, had the congressional relationships needed to push it through, and, in fact, pushed it through even though it wasn't the most popular piece of legislation at that time. Everyone who knows history knows that. So what's the bitch here? Nobody claimed that LGJ did it all by himself. And everybody knows that if it had not been for MLK, it never would've happened at that time.
Can we just get along?
That's why I'm not voting for either Hillary or Obama. Neither of them are ready to get honest with themelves, let alone the the country! I was with Edwards four years ago, and see no reason to back off now. Actually, haircut and million dollar house and all, he's the only one speaking truth out there.
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Why Are Fundamentalist Muslims In The West If They Don't Like Living In The West?
[Read the article: The Noxious Fruits of Hate Speech laws]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Why do people who don't share the basic, common values of a people who are citizens of that country bother living in that place and then complain about life there?
I'm talking about people who find Western life so offensive as do many fundamentalist Muslims who live in Western countries, like the United States. Time after time we read stories or hear about stories where Muslims are bothered about something Western: the way Western women dress or act; the culture itself; free speech values attacked by the political police; coming here to get educated and despising it all the while they are here; and killing their children (oh yeah, daughters only) when they defy their own traditional customs.
We could all argue about whether or not the cultural values of the United States are appropriate, healthy, or even morally corrupt at times. But even the American right-wing Evangelcals with all their supposed voting clout has not managed to turn the tide of corporate greed that drives the majority of the cultural mess that is the United States these days. Actually, the right-wing Evangelicals in the Republican party have never been able to square away that pro-business/corporate/laissez-faire ideology with their religious teachings. But, hey, that's their problem, right?
But what I cannot understand is this: If you are a fundamentalist Muslim who is offended by Free Speech and other morally bankrupt Western cultural norms, then go find some place else to live and stop asking the rest of us to limit our own freedoms because you are OFFENDED by something.
If a country (France) wants to ban scarves over girls heads at schools, then that's their perogative to do so. We ban certain designated gang costume items here in U.S. schools. Funny, but I don't hear anybody's Mom down at the school complaining that Junior can't wear that red bandana on his head anymore! And we also ban other kinds of clothes too, like halter tops, short shorts, etc.)
My guess is that every fundamentalist Muslim residing in a Western country is offended by SOMETHING. As I'm sure I would be if I were residing in say, Kuwait, with their own special caste system, or Saudia Arabia where women are still second-class citizens (by MY standards, of course, not THEIRS), or Iran where the berka rules. SO I DON'T LIVE THERE. Hell, I don't even visit because I just don't share the values and don't see any reason to visit a place that so outwardly rejects my own set of values. Buy, hey, that's my problem, right?
I don't fit in. And I don't know about you, but I tend to not go where I don't fit in. Atleast I don't go with the notion of putting down roots to LIVE there with an expectation that you all abide by MY set of values and rearrange your customs to suit me. Get it? I don't fit in there. And those who go to reside in countries that are dramatically different from their own may find that THEY don't fit in either.
Sure, it's a U.S. Constitutional thing. And it's messy. And it makes things dicey at times and we grumble about it. And even our own citizens have to own up and change once or twice a generation to accommodate yet another U.S. Constitutional thing. But it's a free country,and it's going to stay that way. So either leave for someplace that you are more comfortable with people who share your own cultural values- or stay. But know this: We're not granting special dispensation - or ripping up the Constitution - because YOU ARE OFFENDED BY A FREAKIN' CARTOON!
Chill out, everyone of us in America has been offended by SOMETHING atleast once in our lifetime - all of us: White men,black men, white women, black women, kids, old people, black people, Hispanic people, Jewish Americans, Irish Americans, Native Americans, Indians, It goes with the territory. Actually, if we aren't offending you, we don't love you. It's a family thing.