The American Spectator

COMMUNITY SERVICE
Re: Jay D. Homnick’s Those ‘70 Show:

I’m still laughing at “Those 70s Show.” In 1969 I was a VISTA volunteer in a rural setting. We VISTAs were required to transport our “poor people” who fell under the penumbra of the local CAP (Community Action Program) office up to the closest city to sit in an auditorium (probably a high school theater in summer) to be harangued by a black radical from a local university. He was an out-and-out communist in a suit that changed color as the viewing angle changed. He screamed about bringing down the system and power to the people and the whole Marxist rant spiced with racial resentments. There it was! The government was paying a radical to organize rural poor into cadres to tear down the government and smash the bourgeoisie! Our tax dollars at work. On the way back to the rural CAP office with my car full of rural “poor people” (they were only poor in a relative sense — their community was much higher functioning than the city culture that was attempting to entice them aboard the great revolution) one of them, a rather dear woman who doted on me, said, “I didn’t understand a word he said. What was he so worked up about?” It was about that time I read Catch 22 and began to realize I wasn’t a statist.
— Joe Hanna

UNJUST DESERTS
Re: G. Tracy Mehan, III’s Hating Congress, Hating Ourselves:

With all due respect to Mr. Mehan, I have never been able to “get” the government that I want, no matter what I do, no matter what I don’t do, and no matter how I vote. That has been the situation for years, and I suspect that many of your readers feel the same way. We feel disenfranchised, because, in fact, we are. This fall I plan to vote straight Republican, which I probably would do anyway, but especially so this fall, given the atrocious, overbearing, imperious behavior of the Democrats in office. However, I am not especially sanguine that things will improve even if the GOP gets control of BOTH houses, and I know for a fact that, even if things improve a bit, nothing will change much, and the Federal government will NOT be reduced in size. It may grow more slowly for awhile, but get smaller? Not on your life.

So please, PLEASE, stop with the glib “folks get the government they want” or “deserve,” or whatever. The problem is now that we, the people, don’t get the government we want, and there seems to be no viable mechanism by which we can.
— D. Reich
Auburn, New York

TRICKLE-DOWN LIBERALISM
Re: Andrew Cline’s Money for Sculptures, But Not Firefighters:

The $850,000 spent on the sculpture had to cover the overhead costs for the arts program, which meant that while the artist got part of it, that money went through many hands first, including the administrators of the program, their staff and the sales rep who made the deal. I’d be pleasantly surprised if the artist got half. When conservatives propose that the wealthiest sectors of the economy drive economic growth through their investments, it’s derided as “trickle down” economics by our elite opinion-regurgitators, but when liberals claim that government spending, which takes money from the productive private sectors, and trickles it down through layer after layer of bureaucracy, creates jobs, it’s called “stimulus.”

Just another example of government largesse “trickling down” on our heads and while the media tells us that it’s raining.
— Mike Harris, MAJ, US Army

IN MEMORIAM
Re: Ben Stein’s Losing Amber:

Ben Stein’s short article about the loss of Amber was so well written and heartfelt. Thank him for his efforts and extend our condolences; it is so painful to lose youth and beauty. We all shed tears for Amber and Darby.

Thank you for publishing this memorial.
— Gerald Flatz
Boise, Idaho