The American Spectator

Reader Mail

Ivy League Scolds

4.28.08 @ 12:01AM

(Page 3 of 3)

I am curious though. As I have pondered why no Democrat is attempting to achieve Dr. King's dream as I have portrayed it above, and how someone so liberal as Obama, so much so that he might more accurately be called a socialist, could even think that their goals would fall under that dream. Yet there are many who seem to believe that even communism would fill that bill. Did King dream that we would be equal in slavery yoked under the rule of an elite who thinks they know better than we do what is good for us, setting rules for us they would never live under? Or did he dream that we would be yoked in slavery under the rule of murderous thugs that are more "equal" than we are? I know King flirted with communists. They do put out a good lie about equality. But for someone who wanted to be free and equal, those systems are neither, and can't deliver a better future.

The Reverend Wright has surprised me that someone can become a Christian pastor and preach hate and revenge instead of love and forgiveness. I hope such absurdities don't extend to the Reverend King. But I do understand that the Christian ideals go against human nature.

As such, I have a warning to give. A huge number of people died to end slavery. Somehow, much of the resulting freedoms paid for in American blood, were lost under Jim Crow. That was quite a backlash. America has risen and given back those lost freedoms, and done even more in trying to compensate for past discrimination. And we have set social constraints that punish racism. And we have followed those who have asked us to punish ourselves for the crimes of our fathers. Yet all these efforts are rejected and dismissed out of hand. Those who play the race card act as if there has been no effort, let alone no benefit, and segregate themselves, calling the good self-effacing people racists. Those self-effacing efforts are against human nature. Only our Christian nature could allow it to continue for over half a century. And rejecting them dooms these attempts to end racism to failure, guaranteeing another backlash.

Why can't we unite again and thank people for their efforts and the progress that has been made? That way we could focus our efforts on finishing the journey, overcoming the racism that remains, and helping the truly afflicted out of the remaining chains that bind them.

That can't happen if we cling to divisive politics. We need to stop making false accusations for personal gain. Nor will it ever happen if we continue to teach victims that they must be enslaved to the teats of government. We need to teach people that they can rise up like Obama has, that they have to do it, but we will give them a hand up instead of trapping them with hand outs. But if it doesn't happen, things will get worse, not better.
-- James Bailey

ANGEL EYES
Re: James David Dickson's Supporting the Troops:

Mr. Dickson has written regarding a topic near to my heart. There is nothing that we as ordinary citizens can do that is more important than to take care of our warriors and their families. We absolutely MUST insure that these warriors DO NOT experience what our troops did during the Vietnam era. It is already getting very close to that in various places in the country. If it wasn't for these warriors, people like Code Pink and the traitorous left wing academicians and their sheep would be too fearful to dare to protest some government action, and rightly so.

I am sure that the SecDef for Public Liaison is doing all that she can to help our troops. The plain fact is that the reason that our troops are getting such good service is precisely because the various agencies are private, and not government agencies. There is extremely little that the government does that it does well.

I had high hopes for Mr. Dickson's column when I started reading it. Unfortunately it did not fulfill my hopes. The Massachusetts based program is great, but what about all the other programs that are covering the whole country. There is no mention of Soldier's Angels, a program that has volunteers working literally worldwide for our warriors. Some of the volunteers are German ladies that stay in contact with the troops' needs as they are brought to Landsthul (sp) Army Hospital. I won't attempt to cite the stats on the number of volunteers, the number of troops aided, the number of military families aided, the dollars involved, the varied projects ongoing, but they are truly impressive, and all because Patty Patton-Bader's son wrote Mom a letter asking her to help a couple of other guys in his squad. Go to their web site to get the full details.

There is no mention of a soldier's Mom in New Jersey that started and runs Operation AC that sends small air conditioners, small space heaters, and other items to the troops in Iraq. There is no mention of the Wounded Warriors Project that concerns just what its name implies. There is no mention of a lady whose blogosphere name is Tanker Babe who contacted Carhartt Inc., resulting in them donating 750 sets of thermal long johns and 2500 pairs of their best wool socks to the Sky Soldiers, an Airborne unit deployed to the Hindu Kush mountains in Afghanistan. There is no mention of the special fund for the families of fallen Marines, or of fallen Special Forces, or other groups. There is even a group that concentrates on sending stuff for the war dogs. Did you know that Chap Stik lip balm has been a god send to protect the noses of the explosive sniffing dogs and other war dogs from the blowing sand in Iraq.

I fully realize that the column could not possibly report on every voluntary group, but it could have done a better job of introducing a varied selection of the groups. If you are not going to do that, then the column could have introduced readers to a place they could go to find listings of those groups. I just think that Mr. Dickson missed a really good chance to give some well deserved good publicity to some really fine folks. Just as a matter of disclosure, I suppose that I ought to say that I go the extra mile each year to donate the maximum that I can to Soldier's Angels.
-- Ken Shreve

SIX MORE YEARS
Re: Constance Hately's Judging the Judges:

Although you wrote an excellent article, I think you missed the fact that one political party only has an advantage if they win the governorship most often. In that case, the governor stacks the commissions with members of his own party. The terms of the commissioners are staggered for six years in an effort to avoid any one governor having the ability to stack the commissions. When, however, one party controls the governorship for twelve straight years then the commissions become stacked with political appointees from one party. This is what happened under Carnahan and Holden. By the time Blunt came into office, the commissions were stacked and remain so today. The one term that Blunt has served has not offered enough opportunity to appoint commissioners from his own party, thus the commissions remain heavily stacked in the democrats favor. Unless a Republican wins the next governor's race, the public will be subjected to a continued degradation of our judiciary which is certainly not healthy for the state.
-- Charles S. Pullium
St. Louis, Missouri

DON'T KNOW NO JOE
Re: Letters (under "Hiss-Trionics") in Reader Mail's Never Ending Swansong:

Okay, I get it. Senator Obama's alleged elitism was discussed in a rather lengthy article about Alger Hiss, but was not intended to suggest, infer, imply, equate, etc. So with apologies to Ben Stein in
his role as the classroom teacher in Ferris Bueller's Day Off: What was the point of bringing up Senator Obama in the dissertation? Anybody? Anybody?

Guess I was fooled by the titled of the article, "The Alger Hiss Democrats." Come on folks. If you're going to play the "guilt by association" game, at least give your intellectual mentor, Senator Joe McCarthy, the respect of standing up proudly for your handiwork.
-- Mike Roush
North Carolina
P.S. Thank you Craig Sarver for the citation/information. I look forward to checking it out.

Letter to the Editor

topics:
Business, Law, Military, Iraq, NATO, Communism, Oil