We have a half dozen LTE's today. In some instances, I find myself keeping strange company in agreement.
Have courage
RICHARD TERRY LOVELACE
Winston-Salem
Representing the citizens
So senators and congressmen, won't you join us in the way we have to live?
BONNIE KING
Winston-Salem
Qualifications
KAY ANDERSON
Winston-Salem
Hypocrites
Talk about being a coward! He had said that he would leave it up to his four daughters to make their own decisions? Talk about a lie!
DON WITTE
Advance
We all benefit
FLEMING A. EL-AMIN
Winston-Salem
Sounds like a theocracy
RUDY DIAMOND
Lewisville
America's elected officials seem hell-bent on destroying our country by thrusting anger, apathy and crazy thinking into its heart. Recent evidence of that is their difficulty agreeing on straightforward solutions for our debt ceiling and other economic problems.
Is there a root cause that explains the white-hot anger of conservatives, the pitiful apathy of moderates and the nutty beliefs of liberals in Washington? Arianna Huffington appeared on the Aug. 3 MSNBC show "The Last Word," saying that our president needs intense therapy to explain to himself his role in the debt-ceiling deal.
My root cause explanation for the anger, apathy, craziness-based threats to America from within is that politicians hate themselves when they believe the opposite is true. Self-loathing makes it easy for our government's leaders to tell the gigantic lies they subconsciously believe more accurately reflect their true nature and in other ways behave like they, when they don't, despise us and our country.
The only and difficult remedy for this hidden self-hatred is to encourage our representatives to have the courage required to get treatment and overcome their distorted hateful view of themselves. Then they can tell the truth and represent the majority of us more than the special interests that intend to destroy America.
RICHARD TERRY LOVELACE
Winston-Salem
Representing the citizens
I would first like to say thanks to Scott Sexton for his Aug. 7 column, "Congress should tighten its own belt," and to Rep. Howard Coble for his optioning out of his pension from his years of government service. I fully believe that all senators and congressmen should not be receiving a paycheck and should not be getting pensions after their service has ended. The money would be well spent on our teachers and military.
I don't have a pension plan, and I know a lot of us don't have jobs to even get a paycheck. So let those who go to Washington to supposedly represent the citizens of their states do it without the more than $100,000 a year. Maybe if they had to live on what an average person lives on they might get a clue as to what is really going on in this country.
BONNIE KING
Winston-Salem
Qualifications
President Obama was voted into office with two qualifications: a slogan and the gift of gab. After three years in office, our unemployment is stuck on high, our debt has increased $3 trillion, and our credit rating has been downgraded for the first time in history.
He came into office with two wars going on, and now we are involved in three. And we are left with Obama and his slogan and his gift of gab. Heaven help us.
KAY ANDERSON
Winston-Salem
Hypocrites
Last week we read the Aug. 3 editorial "State senator turns back on women," regarding the travesty that Sen. Stan Bingham had made regarding the new waiting period and the hoops that women now have to jump through to secure an abortion.
Everyone also needs to know that state Reps. Dale Folwell and Julia Howard both voted to override the governor's veto.
I did not vote as a Republican to give them the authority to be my moral conscience. Too many Republicans talk of too much government and yet they want to tell all of us what to do, when it is none of their business. It is pure and simple government intrusion into private, painful and personal decisions that should be made by the women alone. Thank you, Sen. Bingham and Reps. Folwell and Howard, for now becoming our personal, unelected doctors.
Finally, it was interesting to read that Gov. Rick Perry of Texas, now a presidential candidate, said he would call for a constitutional amendment to ban abortions and gay marriage … and why should I even consider voting for him or other Republicans? I don't want hypocritical people telling me what to do.
DON WITTE
Advance
We all benefit
Prayer is sacred, personal and private. The Constitution is clear in the First Amendment when it states, "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or the free exercise thereof."
As a firm believer in prayer, which is traditionally offered at least five times daily in the Islamic faith community, it is clear that I can protect my right to pray only by respecting the wisdom of the Founding Fathers, who had experienced state-mandated religion. All believers should respect each other on our religious journeys and ask the Forsyth County commissioners to stop pursuing the appeal process and accept the decision of the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. Christians, Jews, Muslims and free-thinkers all benefit when we stop trying to impose our chosen path to the Creator on others.
The commissioners should see the wisdom in our Founding Fathers and work more on bringing more job opportunities to Forsyth County. Leave the praying to the parents, grandparents and other loved ones.
FLEMING A. EL-AMIN
Winston-Salem
Sounds like a theocracy
Of course the attorneys for the Alliance Defense Fund would think that the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals made the wrong decision ("4th Circuit ruling for Forsyth County wrong," Aug. 8). Anything that does not advance the cause of the Christian right is wrong in their eyes.
After all, it was one of the co-founders of the Alliance Defense Fund, the Rev. D. James Kennedy, who proclaimed, "Our job is to reclaim America for Christ, whatever the cost. As the vice-regents of God, we are to exercise godly dominion and influence over our neighborhoods, our schools, our government, our literature and arts, our sports arenas, our entertainment media, our news media, our scientific endeavors — in short, over every aspect and institution of human society." That sounds like a theocracy to me.
The current president of the ADF, Alan Sears, does not believe in the separation of church of state and leads his organization in attacking public education, legal abortion and gay rights; causes strongly opposed by the Christian right. The ADF goes so far as to lure fundamentalist Christian churches into a right-wing political force by sponsoring "Pulpit Freedom Sunday," which is an attempt to defy federal tax law by encouraging pastors to endorse or oppose candidates from the pulpit.
In my opinion, the Forsyth County commissioners have become pawns of the Christian right by appealing the decision of the 4th Circuit. I am glad Commissioner Walter Marshall recognized the ADF's true motives.
RUDY DIAMOND
Lewisville
LTE1: If this LTE wasn't a heavy-handed attempt at tongue-in-cheek writing, then pols aren't the only ones needing treatment.
ReplyDeleteLTE2: We get what we pay for. Look what we're buying now. Cutting compensation leaves our governance more in the hands of rich folks, purchased trained seals, and gadflies and ideologues. We need small businesspeople, teachers, middle managers, et al, to leaven the mix of trust fund babies, lawyers (no offense, Bo, but they are overrepresented), and True Believers currently infesting Congress now.
LTE3: I will not vote for President Obama in 2012, didn't in 2008, but until we can take our blinders off and see past our partisan biases, we aren't going to get very far, as in the case of the deficient debt deal struck at the start of the month. It ain't all Obama's fault. Things haven't improved much, and he certainly has some responsibility there, but there is much bipartisan blame to spread around. Blamefinding, however, is wasting time that should be devoted to bipartisan problem-solving.
LTE4: Hey, WW! I know Don Witte. He is a fine man, and adds value to this area through his good works. He is also 100% correct in his LTE. Excellent epistle, Don, if you read this! I'm really going to be in a quandary in the 2012 Presidential election, as I cannot vote for the union-owned Obama, but I cannot vote for stands such as Perry's.
Re: Don Witte. He has been actively involved in assisting out-of-work professionals and others seek employment. He is past president of his church congregation. He was featured last week in a news segment on either Ch. 8 or Ch. 12, as he now teaches a course at FTCC, I think, to help people seek employment. He was retired, but the economy drove him back to work, also.
LTE5: Mr. El-Amin is chairman of the local Democratic Party, thus I find myself somewhat bemused that I agree with him. If he can find a time and place to pray 5 times/day, commissioners and those attending commission meetings can probably arrange to pray without having to stage a public demonstration prior to meetings. This futile suit has been political grandstanding.
LTE6: The commissioners have been irresponsible in pursuing the prayer issue in courts, and irresponsible in allowing a special interest group to be their catspaw. My normal tendency is to vote straight R, in spite of my new Unaffiliated status, but that will not be the case when commissioners are up for reelection. If I cannot stomach the Dem opponent, I will simply sit it out. As for Marshall, I detest his usual loose cannon pronouncements, but he's right on this issue.
Stab...hmm, you know Don Witte? Well...In another LTE today, Congressman Coble is mentioned and I know him because we are related!
ReplyDeleteGood AM, WW! Definitely a fine family. Congressman Coble should be proud that you are kin.
ReplyDeleteStab..thanks! Howard is an even tempered man and always has been. I think I might try my keyboard at LTE-1 here in a minute as it is very telling. I must finish coffee #4 first.
ReplyDeleteIn the arena of government endorsed religion, Mike Adams, a professor at UNC-Wilmington has a recent column in which he describes a gay support group on campus having "gay friendly" churches listed on University letterhead for sharing with those who may be interested. Now THIS is "establishment of religion." When will the ACLU address it, I wonder?
ReplyDeleteWelcome, NCLaw441!
ReplyDeleteThis appears to be an endorsement, if not quite so in your face as that of our commissioners. As for the ACLU, I doubt they will bestir themselves over this, just as they ignore unions' trampling of individual rights. However, they will surprise every so often. Years ago, they defended the right of Nazis to march in heavily Jewish Skokie, IL, a demonstration in about as vile a taste as those of Westboro Baptist Church. This cost the ACLU some members and contributions, as they had a large number of Jewish members who cancelled.
LTE-1..Our country is at what the writer Malcolm Gladwell calls a "tipping point". What we have done for 70 years-make todays promises based on tomorrows taxpayers- can no longer sustain us. One of our political parties can only survive by doing the same thing they have done for 70 years. The other political party can only survive if they force the change. The first can't yield and the second is to timid to fight. So on we go. Straightforward solutions sounds sane to most of us out here in America, but in DC...that is suicide. Normal people avoid suicidal actions. Anger of conservatives, apathy of moderates and nuttyness of liberals is the result. All three are acting normal according to their beliefs. Liberals know the end is in sight and conservatives know that if they push the issue they get cut to pieces if they touch the third rail. Moderates just stay quiet and hope they can survive without doing or saying anything.
ReplyDeleteWe the voters expect our candidates to tell enough of the comfortable lies to allow us to vote for them in the hopes they will "do something". A candidate who gets up and tells the plain truth will get punished by the electorate because, by gosh, he just Might "do something". Enter the TEA Party types. They are making the status quo in DC sweat and thereby making governing class Washington nervous. Governors who are new on the scene in NJ,Ohio,Indiana and Wisconsin are "doing something". The Old Order will fight every bit of this with all they can muster which is acting rationally in their view. We are only beginning to "live in interesting times".
Well, NCLaw, how have you been?
ReplyDeleteTesting
ReplyDeleteDo my eyes deceive me? I mean after a hundred attempts it worked? Whoa.
ReplyDeleteWell, Mr. Law, in my experience, people of your political persuasion are typically totally ignorant of the ACLU and how it operates. I would suggest that you study up on the ACLU. You will discover all kinds of surprises.
ReplyDeleteTo start with, the ACLU does not institute lawsuits on its own. Even if it were so inclined, it could not do it because it does not have the time. The ACLU REPRESENTS those who bring complaints to them. So if you don't like what is going on at UNCW, go complain to the ACLU. They might well take the case.
Secondly, the ACLU sole purpose is to protect the citizens of the US from the government, whether it be federal, state or local. Because of this, it has represented christians in dozens of important cases. And yes, it represenhted the Ku Klux Klan because the same government that routinely gave parade permits to other groups refused to issue one to the Klan. No one desspises the Klan more than I do. They once tried to firevbomb my house. But they have the same rights as everyone else.
If you turned off the Fox talking heads and did a bit of honest independent investigation, you would already know that. But I am aware that many are allergic to truth, because truth can be an inconvenience to preconceived notions.
Good afternoon folks!
ReplyDeleteLTE 1: An umm... interesting LTE. I wouldn't describe the moderates' mood as apathetic as much as it's frustration over the shenanigans going on from both sides. As long as special interests pay the campaign bills, they will always have the ear of the politicians.
LTE 2: I see Ms. King has never lived in the DC area and has no idea of the CoL there. The suggested salary belt tightening would have virtually no effect on the deficit or debt. Many if not most Congressmen are actually taking pay cuts from their previous careers. The person making an "average" salary cannot afford to effectively run for Congress.
LTE 3: Ms. Anderson's monthly anti-Obama rant. The problems cited would exist regardless of who occupied the WH.
LTE 4:"It is pure and simple government intrusion into private, painful and personal decisions that should be made by the women alone." - says all that needs to be said. Since when has adding multiple Constitutional amendments that limit individual freedoms become a "conservative" idea? More reasons why the "L" / "C" terms have no meaning anymore.
LTE 5: Nothing to add to the last paragraph which says it all.
LTE 6: Judge Wilkinson(sp?) who wrote the majority opinion is as right wing as any judge you will find on the SC which should have given the CC's a strong clue that any petition to the SC ain't going anywhere. If this ill-conceived notion to appeal comes back to bite the tax payers, the CC's should start saying their own personal prayers.
Hello and welcome AJV! And good PM to O. T. and dotnet!
ReplyDeleteMy goodness, O.T., you must have been a very active part of the civil rights movement to have riled the genetic defectives, aka KKK. You said they tried to firebomb your home. How did the attempt fail? Did you by chance discover that sometimes armed homeowners do indeed deflect crimes? Whatever way, I'm glad the incendiary failed.
I don't see using University letterhead, or any govt letterhead for that matter to inform newcomers about what churches are available as a violation of the Establishment clause as long as the govt agency provides lists of any paticular faith that meets the inquery instead of just one particular faith regardless of the religion of the newcomers. I would imagine a list of "gay friendly" churches would include churches from multiple faiths.
ReplyDeleteHi dotnet!
ReplyDeleteAtheists might differ with you, though it's probably getting close to hair splitting in this case.
Stab, here is a very condensed account of the war between my friends and I and the Kuklos.
ReplyDeleteWe look back at that war and laugh now, but there were a couple of very tense moments.
The irony is that I was involved in far more dangerous activities earlier on in 1963-65 and never even saw a klansman.
Then one hot summer day after playing basketball on an outdoor court, five of us, four white and one black went to a local bar for a beer. They brought us a pitcher and four mugs and said that the black guy could sit at the table but couldn't drink, so we left. The owner called the cops and complained that we had not paid for our beer. Little did we know that he was the leader of the local KKK.
Skipping over a lot of detail, there was a very poorly organized demonstration the next night at the bar...people got spat upon and called "white niggers"...the owner had the demonstrators arrested...the police, sensibly, later released them without booking them.
Later about a dozen armed KKK caught my roommate alone and tried to kill him but he was rescued by Lumbee Indians. How's that for high drama? None of the Kooks were ever arrested.
The next night they tried to firebomb our house, but the police SWAT folks were watching over us and shot one of them, although he escaped and was never identified.
Once they realized that the police would shoot them, the Klan boys showed their usual cowardice and withdrew, thus ending the melodrama. The bar where it all began closed forever a few weeks later, and was, ironically, replaced by the first new age type bar in the Carolinas...yoghurt and beer, anyone?
Someday, if I ever find the time, I might write a full account of that little war. It would play mostly as a comedy, with the top Klan leaders in the role of the Three Stooges.
Stab, sorry to not respond sooner, but things are very busy in my life at the moment.
ReplyDeleteI have no idea what is going on at the Journal site. I made two posts today and can still see both of them, but apparently no one else can.
A assume that the post that you referred to via FB was my reply to your response to LTE #2 which was:
"The first US Congress counted among its members a butcher, a hog farmer and a blacksmith.
Today nearly 50% are lawyers, with a gaggle of doctors and other 'professionals'. 214 list their occupation as 'public service/politics'.
We do have two vintners, two carpenters, a mountain guide, a casino dealer, several industrial workers, a mortician, a waitress, a tugboat captain and a cab driver.
Maybe we need more of the latter group.
And, for the record, my other post was in response to Bo Houff's well worn screed:
ReplyDelete"Bo is like a parrot, repeating the same thing every day. And he is like the Pharisees, who loved showing off in public, who Jesus was speaking of in Matthew:
5. And when thou prayest, thou shalt not be as the hypocrites are: for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and in the corners of the streets, that they may be seen of men. Verily I say unto you, They have their reward.
6. But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret; and thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly.
There are Christians, who follow Jesus' teaching, and there are so-called christians, who don't."
As usual, I mostly agree with dotnet's posts and have little to add, except in this case:
ReplyDelete"Judge Wilkinson(sp?) who wrote the majority opinion is as right wing as any judge you will find on the SC which should have given the CC's a strong clue that any petition to the SC ain't going anywhere. If this ill-conceived notion to appeal comes back to bite the tax payers, the CC's should start saying their own personal prayers."
Dotnet spells the judge's name correctly and also gets his characterization dead on. Judge Wilkinson was appointed to the circuit court by the great god of the conservatives, Ronnie Raygun himself. And in 2004, he came very close to being appointed to the US Supreme Court by none other than Dick Cheney, aka George W. Bush.
There is little question that the Supremes will demur on this question. They have, after all, already ruled on it once, way back in the giddy Raygun years.
But where dotnet goes astray is in assuming that the County Commissioners were doing any thinking at all re this matter. They couldn't care less about whether the Supremes take the case or not. Instead, they are assuming that their chances in the next election hinge upon appeasing the fumblementalist christians. So the only politic approach was to appeal.
They may be in for a rude awakening. The fumblementalists make an awful lot of noise, but their numbers, even here in the bible belt, are dwindling in comparison to those of sane people.
There is a movement afoot to recruit fresh new candidates and target certain fools, particularly the crybabies Whisenhunt and Conrad, who led the blind charge into this morass.
The names and faces of these new heroes are well known to me. I am encouraged enough to get off my flabby butt and rejoin the fray after too many years of idleness. And I am not alone.
I'm sure that the incumbents think that they will reign forever. But they should beware of the arrogance of Macbeth:
"Lay on, Macduff,
And damn'd be him that first cries, 'Hold, enough!'"
I'll settle for that.