The American Spectator

Reader Mail

Heil and Hardy

9.13.02 @ 12:01AM

PRO SPIRO
Re: John Corry's Moving On and Jerry Carter's In This Corner...:

Thanks for John Corry's piece on New York and Washington -- as usual, highly intelligent and acutely perceptive. As for Jerry Carter, all writers on deadline know what it is to try to make something out of nothing or to round off a trite observation with strained wit. But please, no more gratuitous whacks at Spiro Agnew. Conservatives may not always retrieve their wounded. But we don't need to shoot our dead.
-- John R. Coyne

GERMANY'S SLOW RECOVERY
Re: Hans Nichols' An Anti-American Election:

Those topless billboards sound Weimar-ish; this is all the more reason to be concerned, for after Weimar comes the reaction.
-- Jim Stevenson

I was very interested to read Nichols' article. Here is Hans Eichel's reaction to Bush's UN speech today:

"In Germany -- where the government has been Europe's staunchest opponent of an attack on Iraq -- Finance Minister Hans Eichel warned that a military campaign on Baghdad was the only thing that could wreck Germany's economic recovery."

The only thing, huh?
-- Brian Hoffman

While your article raises many good points, there is one element in the current mix that the author passed over. The impact of the conversion to the euro on the average German cannot be underestimated. My parents, both of German birth (and now proud Americans) recently visited their kin. One of the bits of news they brought back was the near-universal anger (at least amongst their friends and kinsmen) over the euro's impact on their pocket books.

To put the problem into the simplest of terms, imagine waking up one morning and finding your paycheck slashed in half, and the prices for everything you need suddenly 10-50% higher. To put it mildly, they're p.o.'d big time. It'll be interesting as the election gets closer to see if either candidate plays the "euro card" against the other.

And you thought Florida was fun.
-- Charles D. Ahner
Cincinnati, OH

SO SIOUX ME
Re: Lawrence Henry's First Name, Last Name:

I read the thing twice, and I still don't know if Mr. Henry is in favor of the use of last names for adults by children or not.

Personally, I abhor the current "friendliness" because it seems that everyone, particularly some snot-nosed little kid, starts addressing me by my first name the instant he/she finds out what it is, and that, in my humble opinion, is a sign of disrespect.

Sorry, Mr. Henry -- if you like it, I don't, and I find at the age of 63 that it is simply another way to bypass etiquette. I correct it every chance I get, and I will continue to do so. My kids aren't going to address me by my first name, and even other adults aren't going to, unless I allow them to do it first.

It's well past time to get back to basics.
-- (Mr.) Alan R. Huber
Sioux Falls, SD

Letter to the Editor

topics:
Books, Constitution, Law, Military, Iraq, Russia, NATO