The American Spectator

Reader Mail

Tony's Awards

3.25.08 @ 12:01AM

(Page 3 of 7)

Adam should spend a little more time on the western shore of the pond.
-- Steve Kraisler

Mr. Creighton's elitist, yet entertaining, article could have been cut in half if he had just mentioned one important fact:

Nowhere in the U.S. Constitution, especially in Article I (Section 8), does it authorize the Federal Government to fund, or lay duties, excises or taxes in order to fund, or in any way be involved in primary, secondary, or post-secondary education, nor be involved in any other form of education, whether it be vocational, technical, or otherwise. Nor does it allow the Fed to tax non-productive students, for that matter.

Education is a state issue, not a federal issue. For example, Virginia's Constitution sets aside about a third of its text to address the issue. The U.S. Constitution is very specific in what the U.S. Government can do (subject, of course, to how SCOTUS interprets the document -- another issue that will be addressed many times in other columns). Contrary to popular opinion, if the U.S. Constitution does not specifically address a given issue, that does not give the Federal Government carte blanche over said issue -- in other words, it is a limiting document. Give the $68 billion back to the taxpayers. Let each state figure out how to best educate its citizens in the public arena. Milton Friedman would have loved nothing more than to see 50 independent experiments.
-- Owen H. Carneal, Jr.
Yorktown, Virginia

Great article, if fairly long. I think we should charge law students twice the tuition PLUS a nuisance tax for all the trouble they will cause when they finally pass the various bar exams.

Recently I ran into one of my daughter's friends I had not seen in a long time. She breathlessly told me she had applied and had been accepted to law school! As I congratulated her all I could think was, "Wonderful! Just what the world needs -- another lawyer!"
-- Judy Beumler
Louisville, Kentucky

LETTER PERFECT
Re: Vince McKnight's letter (under "Not Brain Surgery") in Reader Mail's Red and Yellow, Black and Blue:

Thank you for publishing Mr. Vince McKnight's eloquent and powerful letter recounting some of his personal experiences with everyday racism in the United States. Its authenticity is readily apparent, perhaps especially to those of us of the same generation. It is indeed marvelous that today's children are growing up in a time when such episodes of blatant ugliness and injustice, once routine and unremarkable in American life, are universally condemned and much reduced in frequency.
-- Paul Curley

Yes, Mr. Vince McKnight and his father clearly have been the victims of racism at the hands of white folk. And as someone who has spent years working with at-risk urban youth, I have seen countless acts of racism visited upon my city's black children. And it is shameful. Truly shameful.

Let me stop here for a moment. Because there is a flip side to this racism issue. I'm curious, does Vince McKnight have any idea the degree of racism white folks living in the ghetto endure -- from blacks? Well I do; I live there. I too have been spit on -- by blacks. I too have been the frequent recipient of racial slurs -- by blacks. I too have had my property vandalized -- by blacks, who preceded the vandalism with racial slurs. I too have been beaten up and robbed -- by blacks. In each case, the perpetrators made clear my race was their motivating factor. They said so themselves.

In America, the blind hatred of white folks by a significant percentage of blacks is epidemic. And until black folk make an effort to find a cure, it will continue to metastasize, pulling all black folk deeper and deeper into the abyss.
-- Mark A. Tarnowski
Minneapolis, Minnesota

CAN WE TALK?
Re: Tom Bethell's Obama and His Minister, Reader Mail's Red and Yellow, Black and Blue, Reader Mail's Barackracy in America etc.:

Boy, was this an interesting piece. A Caucasian from England professing to be able to understand AND judge what the African-American community believes, and benefits from...professing to be able to speak to the ability of light-skinned African-Americans to "get beyond racial issues [sic]."

Wow!!!

As a man of mixed heritage, I was horribly offended by the oversimplified and judgmental view of this article. While I believe fully in everyone's right to their opinion, I also think that we should all believe that with that right comes the responsibility of making sure one knows what one is talking about. This man bases his thesis statement and conclusion on isolated interactions with African-Americans.

Letter to the Editor

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