The American Spectator

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Keyes to the Kingdom?

8.18.04 @ 12:01AM

NEA BASICS
Re: David Hogberg's No Lefty Left Behind:

I thoroughly enjoyed David Hogberg's piece on our "friends" -- no, not the Saudis, but the NEA. One sentence he quotes from the coalition website aptly sums up all that is wrong with the edu-tariat today:

"...we're failing to provide too many children with the basics…"

Indeed. One assumes, having had a rather intense exposure to grammar in primary school, the goal of this group of loons must be to provide too many children with the basics. I applaud their generosity of spirit, but it seems to me a more laudable goal would be to provide enough, or all, children with the basics. Anyone speaking or reading the output of most modern survivors of the education gulag could only borrow a line from Macbeth "Hold, not enough!"
-- Frank Stevenson

Most of the quotes attributed to NEA President Reg Weaver and to the "National Mobilization for Great Public Schools" website are inarguable. We do need to make education a higher priority; we are "...failing to provide too many children with the basics"; and the schools do need "...adequate and equitable funding, qualified teachers, and technology."

But the solution is certainly not for the NEA to align itself with such far-left fringe groups as mentioned in the article. Radical thinking and actions rarely accomplish anything positive. And that's one reason the NEA has gotten such a questionable reputation amongst much of the populace.

If the NEA would do what they should, i.e., concentrate on quality education through support of quality teachers, then they could be a fine organization. As it stands now, they are getting more radical every day.
-- Gary Johnson
Madison, Alabama

NUTS ABOUT KEYES
Re: Hunter Baker's Stop the Keyes Bashing:

I have watched with some apprehension the Illinois Republican Party violate one of the cardinal rules of politics: nominate someone who occasionally makes a stop on planet earth. The Alan Keyes saga took an unexpected turn yesterday when our candidate reached deep into the nether regions of his psyche and came out for reparations for descendants of American slaves in the form of a federal tax holiday extending over one or two generations. Who knew?

This man is not a conservative, he is a nut...and he would be scary if he ever actually could come close to being in any position of power, which he can't because he is a nut.

The Illinois Republican Party has no one but itself to blame for bringing this man among us. Your Hunter Baker had better call his office. Presumably there is a message there telling him to stop making a fool of himself.
-- Leland E. Hutchinson
Chicago, Illinois

Hunter Baker replies:
I've seen a statement from the Keyes campaign on this issue and have to admit I'm puzzled. Giving tax freedom to descendants of slavery for a period is an innovative notion, but I can't see it as part of a campaign for the U.S. Senate. Maybe it makes sense as an idea to be developed further by think tanks, but even then I suspect there are major issues with the Equal Protection Clause of the Constitution.

The essays I've written in favor of a Keyes run for Senate in Illinois have been predicated upon his record of conservative thinking and outstanding ability to articulate the ideas that animated the founding of the nation. I believe if Keyes will re-focus his campaign on those simple values, he'll be able to mount a campaign worth following.

KERRY CREEP
Re: Thomas Lipscomb's Swimming From Cambodia:

Having read your recent "Swimming from Cambodia" article I can state that you are doing a great service to both Vietnam veterans and the American public by researching and documenting the extent of the lies that John Kerry has presented to the public over the last 35 years. Many of us were aware that his charges of war crimes against all Vietnam veterans were false, that his support for a withdrawal from Vietnam, under his terms, would have resulted in the sacrifice of our POWs, and that his support and leadership of the Vietnam Veterans Against the War group made our disengagement more costly and complicated than was necessary.

Letter to the Editor

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