Letters to the Editor Policy

Looking For Our Sisters

I am writing on behalf of the Musa-Stiles VFW post 6223 Ladies Auxiliary in Great Bend, PA. We are asking for assistance from the community in locating the final resting places of our Sisters who have passed on. If you know of a loved one who at one time was a member of our post's auxiliary, please call 570-396-1538 or drop a note to 1609 SR 492 New Milford, PA 18834. Please include the name of the deceased and address of the cemetery or memorial, so that we may honor them this Memorial Day and each year to come, with a grave marker flag.

Sincerely,
Carolyn J. Paccio
Jr. Vice-President Ladies Auxiliary 6223

Putting Into The Economy

The pile of pipes in the once alfalfa fields above Herrick corners shows me that the farmers in our area are still viable - still putting into the economy. Plus, the land will later grow alfalfa; it's a great win win!

It is just like the wind power turbines. Local land owners have the opportunity to continue farming no matter their age. They can farm wind, or gas. It is their chance to be able to continue doing what they chose to do. Once a farmer, always a farmer. It is impressive how we, at the local level, can contribute to our country's energy needs, by providing useful "green energy" sources - wind in particular! Wonderful vegetables from the farm across the road for local families, to good hunting to keep our youth learning to carry on the tradition of the sport for all sportsmen - many people from cities across our country moved here to enjoy and blend in with us and keep our area pristine.

Yes, looking around our area I see that we can keep our farm land open like we know it. Not to have it all developed into urban sprawl. The economy we will get from the new wind park and the future gas wells will keep our area open. We live in a unique part of Pennsylvania - I know this because of the jobs I did whitewashing dairy farms all across the eastern part of PA. I traveled south, as far as Lehigh county, and west to Berwick and Colombia county. Our area is not best noted for a long growing season, and with high mountains we grew a lot of milk with the small hilly rocky pastures; cows do well here, even if you were a small dairy doing your God given talent, or just people with the choice to keep their land wild, for their favorite hunting nooks.

It is a good feeling to see our area prosper. It is great for the land owners to be able to keep their land to pass down to their sons or daughters.

I have seen large fields in Berks County in 1984 go into the final planting. It was sold and now it is full of houses - I call it the "final planting." So, it is nice for us to be able to still live here and keep our land "open," with the turn of a wind turbine on a hill or, right next to our favorite deer stand. We can take pride in knowing, by working together we did it! Just remember, once the companies leave our area we will have it's beauty restored and have the lasting income to sustain it.

Sincerely,
Peter A. Seman
Thompson, PA

On The Razor's Edge

Do not rejoice in someone's death lest someone rejoice in yours.

But the U.S. did rejoice. TV footage showed Bin Laden's death was greeted with unrestrained jubilation across the U.S. At the site of the fallen towers there was dancing in the street. Revelers waved placards reading, “Ding Dong Bin Laden’s Dead,” and “A Good Day For America.” But is it?

Bin Laden was tracked down to his mountain cave. But the “cave” was a sparsely-furnished compound built five years ago on the outskirts of an upscale suburban town. Surrounded by an 18-foot-high wall topped with barbed wire, guard towers, and a courtyard suitable for helicopter landings, the sprawling citadel stood-out like a mansion in the midst of Levittown.

The enclave stands apart in another way. It is the only address off limits to census takers.

Bin Laden's residence was 35 miles from the capital, Islamabad, and just “a few streets away” from the nation's military academy. For the government, its intelligence service, and the military, not to have known who was residing in this compound strains credulity to the breaking point. They knew.

Why the coverup?

Pakistani president, Asif Zardari, has a tenuous grip on power. Eighty percent of the nation have an unfavorable opinion of him and his party, the Pakistan Peoples Party. Economic prospects are gloomy, jobs are few, and the government is corrupt and unresponsive to the people.

On the other side of the ledger, 70 percent have a positive opinion of the opposition party, the Pakistan Muslim League.

Zardari is in the untenable position of being obstensibly cooperative with the U.S. while trying to appease a populous hostile to the U.S. by giving bin Laden sanctuary.

The U.S. has given $11 billion in foreign aid to Pakistan over the last ten years. This year it's $1.7, so far. But in reality the “aid” is not for Pakistan; it is for the U.S. to maintain a West-friendly government. A familiar pattern in the Mideast; governments are easy to buy, but the people can't be bought. Case in point, Egypt.

Egypt was the recipient of $1.3 billion in foreign aid a year for 33 years. The aid was supposed to “stabilize the government.” In plain language, it was to support a government complaint with U.S. interests. It did. In effect, we bought a government. But the fallaheen grew increasingly dissatisfied with dismal economic prospects, few jobs, and a government that was corrupt and unresponsive to the people (Sound familiar?). They rebelled.

Despite Obama's efforts to support Egypt's tottering president, he was booted from office and is under arrest awaiting trail.

If the Zardari government is disliked, the U.S. is hated. A Pew Research Center 2010 survey found 83 percent of Pakistanis had a “very unfavorable” opinion of the U.S. Obama fared worse. Some 92 percent thought he was incompetent.

But the U.S. is stuck in a 9/11 time warp. The government's fixation on the past has blindsided it to the real enemy: the United States.

In 2008 there were 34 drone attacks; in 2009, 50; and last year there were 98 sorties. Pakistanis overwhelmingly believe the drones are killing an intolerably high number of civilians. Several studies bear this out. Chasing down the elusive al-Qaeda with the murderous drones has alienated a nation of 190 million.

Events have bypassed al-Qaeda. The organization has only a few hundred adherents. It is a hollowed-out company of dissidents eclipsed by powerful Islamic political parties.

Bin Laden, himself, was abandoned in yesterday's past, a figurehead, the iconic symbol of resistance to the West.

Now the U.S. is confronted with the details of his killing.

According to the eyewitness account of Bin Laden's 12-year-old daughter, the unarmed Bin Laden was captured alive and unhurt. He was then shot in the chest followed by a Mafia-style insurance shot in the head. Now he “sleeps with the fishes.”

Bin Laden was never meant to be taken alive. One round to the chest and another to the head of the unarmed al-Qaeda assured that. The U.S. would take no chance of the captured leader using his trail as a soapbox to publicize his cause and galvanize support.

Capture and a subsequent trail were not part of the plan neither was a grave site that would become a shrine.

What might be the consequences of turning an icon into a martyr? And what will be the reactions of Muslims when they see Americans rejoicing in the death of “the holy warrior sheik?”

And could Pakistan be a replay of Egypt? Possibly, but with a key difference; Egypt didn't have one hundred nuclear weapons.

Sincerely,
Bob Scroggins
New Milford, PA

Back to Top

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR POLICY
Letters To The Editor MUST BE SIGNED. They MUST INCLUDE a phone number for "daytime" contact. Letters MUST BE CONFIRMED VERBALLY with the author, before printing. Letters should be as concise as possible, to keep both Readers' and Editors' interest alike. Your opinions are important to us, but you must follow these guidelines to help assure their publishing.

Thank you, Susquehanna County Transcript

©