The American Spectator

Reader Mail

Clearing the Holiday Air

12.23.02 @ 12:01AM

PEACE IN OUR TIMES
Re: George Neumayr's Pledge Week Islam:

At long last -- a bit of fresh air. Well done to George Neumayr and his willingness to write the truth.
-- Paul Liptz

Yes, well, it must be said that PBS has on more than one occasion propagated a world view that is somewhat less than wholesomely realistic. Fine article.

An excellent source of wisdom about Islam, and the Arab culture which it has shaped and in which it is ineluctably imbedded, may be found in the culture of Oriental Jewry. The Jews, after all, knew the Arabs long before the Arabs knew Mohammed. Jewish communities in what are now Iraq, Egypt, Syria, Morocco, Tunisia, and Yemen predate the arrival of the conquering Islamic armies by nearly 1,000 years, and persisted until uprooted in the late 1940's by Islamist pogroms driven by the founding struggles of the State of Israel.

These Oriental Jews' collective memory of the Arab/ Islamic world might be summarized thus: nice clothes, great entertainment, good produce, swell laid-back lifestyle except that every so often they go nuts and come, as an ecstatic mob, to cut your throat, rape your wife and daughters and burn your house and shop. Keep your bags packed, your sword sharp and your powder dry.

One might politely suggest to the current crop of Islamic scholars such as Secretary Powell, Shimon Peres, Prime Minister Blair and George W. that maybe, just maybe, they ought to make all possible inquiries of the folks who have accumulated 25 centuries of hands-on experience in those precincts which are now so vexing.

Religion of peace ? Oh, dear, how embarrassing it is when smart people say such silly things.
-- Paul Kotik

IT'S OVER
Re: Ben Stein's The Quality of Mercy:

Lott's apologies seem sincere, perhaps even overwrought. No charitable person should refuse to forgive Lott in his capacity as a human being. Nevertheless, he has demonstrated that he is not fit to lead the Republican party. Furthermore, by fighting on as long as he did to save his job, Lott demonstrated a greater interest in preserving himself than the principles the party is supposed to stand for. The supreme irony in this episode is that one of the party's core principles, abolishing financial and educational entitlements based on race, will inevitably suffer.

Forgive, yes. Overlook, no.
-- Scott A. Browdy
Chicago, IL

How tiresome. Ben Stein trumpeting his civil rights advocacy by citing a scar on his rear from some unidentified presumed redneck racist Marylander.

I'm an ordinary American, I think. I didn't march in any civil rights demonstration any time, at any place, and I won't pretend I did. But I also never tried to deprive anyone of their civil rights. And I think the law should treat everyone the same, regardless of race.

None of my forefathers, though they lived in the South, enslaved anyone. At least one I know of fought for the South in the Civil War. He was a sharecropper in North Carolina, and fought simply to protect his home.

I did serve in my country's military for 20 years and I fought in the Gulf War alongside other Americans of many races and creeds. Today I would not trade that experience; that common bond with my fellow soldiers, with complete disregard for their race or belief; for a thousand of these self-righteous civil rights pomposities.

And I really damn tired of people beating a racist drum every chance
they get to further their own agenda.
-- John Mercer
Alexandria, VA

Letter to the Editor

topics:
Taxes, Education, Trade, Bill Clinton, Entitlements, Religion, Islam, Law, Military, Iraq, Israel, NATO, Africa