Letters to the Editor Policy

Regress Report

In November of 2010, voters who were anxious about the pace of economic recovery elected a slew of Republican governors and state legislators. After 5 months we can make an assessment of what they've been up to. Given a mandate over economic issues, state Republicans have gone hog-wild for radical initiatives that have little relevance to economic problems. Namely:

- Efforts to undermine unions (with the eventual goal of their elimination). Corporate power must be unchallenged.

- Backhanded measures to suppress poor and minority voting, excused with the very rare and inconsequential instances of voter fraud (with the real purpose of perpetuating Republican dominance.)

- Several states (including PA) cutting money for public schools while steering it to private schools, in heedless disregard of Constitutional bans on it. (Ultimate goal - eliminating public education altogether.) Savings: nil.

- Tax cuts for the rich, paid for with spending cuts on programs that help the less privileged. (How sporting.) Savings: nil.

- Hundreds of petty, nagging measures to put impediments in the way of women who choose to terminate their pregnancy (pending its ultimate outlawing, which would not prevent abortion anyway).

- Pushing gun-carrying as close to everywhere as possible, including on college campuses and in bars, which is begging for trouble. Whatever happened to the property rights of proprietors who want to keep guns out of their establishment, like they did in the Wild West? Frankly, they were more civilized than we are.

- Ridiculous bills to ban Sharia law, which we're in no danger of having. Plus they're unnecessary, since the First Amendment prohibits the government from establishing religion.

What a load of ugly, stupid, mean-spirited ideological nonsense! Clearly, silly season lasts all year long now. What's really sad is that so many people who do not benefit from it support an agenda that is antithetical to their interests. And the argument that such policies benefit society as a whole is specious. The only ones who benefit here are the rich, the powerful, and crazy ideological zealots. And this nonsense will continue as long as people let it, as long as we allow ourselves to be bamboozled.

Sincerely,

Stephen Van Eck

Lawton, PA

Good News

We are made (created) in the image and likeness of God, yet we are as empty vessels without Him. Of all that is holy and seen as the center of like, it is irrefutably Jesus Christ, creator, redeemer and friend. Even the demons at the sound of His word obeyed Christ. Incarnate wisdom came into the world, full of grace and truth. If fact, the world was made through him and apart from Him was not anything made that was made. To all who believe in Him, He gave the power to become the children of God. This power He breathed into His priesthood to forgive sins and produce reenactment of Calvary upon the altars of holy mother church confecting the body and blood of Christ. At His ascension Jesus promised to be with us until the end of time. St. Paul, apostle to the gentiles expresses this dogma of the faith with this acclamation. When we eat this bread and drink this cup, we proclaim your death Lord Jesus, until you come in glory.

The Ministerium of Pope Benedict XVI recently endorsed the preliminaries of an eventual full return to the ancient trinitine mass of which the current novus ords mass is an abbreviation. Of course with this many other wonderful restoration of ancient church traditions are expected. Of all the traditions within holy mass communion, no the tongue is the most consummate and edifying act of homage that a believer can make.

It would help us to remember that the Blessed Virgin Mary’s hands being all pure and perfect as is Her heart so as to deliver Jesus to us. So to we should receive at the hands of Christ’s priests the bread of angels on the tongue!

Sincerely,

John Mann

Susquehanna, PA

When Winning Is Losing

A great day for America. The king of terror, Osama bin Laden, had met his end. But now that the chorus of self-congratulations is fading we might dispassionately consider if it really was a great victory for the United States or just another triumph of ineptitude.

A high-powered Navy Seal's rifle ended the decade-long pursuit. One round to the heart, another to the left eye socket, terminated the life of OBL, the assumed mastermind behind the destruction of the Twin Towers in 2001.

The OBL killing is an “extrajudicial assassination” meaning that it did not have the sanction of law. By definition it was unlawful. Murder fits better. The Seals, courageous beyond doubt, were the government's hit team. His death has more the odor of revenge than justice. It was a just killing only in the sense that some considered it just as the jihadists who toppled the Twin Towers considered it a “just” act.

OBL was captured unhurt. He was not armed. Moreover, he was a sickly man afflicted with a number of diseases. He was not physically capable of offering resistance. Why was he killed?

Some time ago a revolutionary firebrand was captured. He was put on trial for treason. But he turned the tables on the government and put it on trial. The judicial proceeding served as a platform to publicize his ideas. He was found guilty and sentenced to prison. But even this he turned to his advantage. He used the eight months of incarceration to write a best selling book. The year was 1923. The man was Adolph Hitler. The book was Mein Kampf.

No, it would not do to have OBL paraded in chains at the hands of infidels. His trial might accomplish more for his cause than an act of terrorism.

But the story doesn't end with his death, it begins.

The Seals were ferried to OBL's compound in top-secret stealth helicopters, stealthy in their radar signature as well as their sound suppression. He was taken completely by surprise. So was the Pakistani government. When the unauthorized and illegal raid was discovered, two fighter jets were scrambled to the scene. Fortunately, before the jets arrived the Seals were gone leaving behind a damaged stealth chopper.

Pieces of its top-secret, radar-absorbing coating have since made their way to China courtesy of the Pakistani government. But are they not our friends? No, they are not our friends anymore than we are their friends. Governments do not form friendships; they are bound only by mutually beneficial interests. The OBL incursion has strained these ties.

Ironically, the very object of this international brouhaha, the so-called king of terror, had become a titular sovereign, irrelevant, his jihadic rhetoric dated. Not one of the uprising in the Middle East and North Africa were inspired by OBL's militant pan-Islamic vision. There were and are secular rebellions. OBL's death accomplished only the souring of the relationship between the U.S. and Pakistan, compromising secret stealth technology, and prompting a disquieting question: Was all this really worth it?

Count the cost. The ten-year manhunt involved the invasion and occupation of two nations, Iraq and Afghanistan, cost the lives of 6,024 American servicemen, thousands of coalition troops, and tens of thousands of Iraqis and Afghans as well. By one estimate the price is $2 trillion and the meter is still running.

As a finale to this debacle the U.S. is “demanding” that Pakistan give an account of its lax security that allowed OBL to reside in the nation's midst for five years. But we had better tread lightly. We have 100,000 troops in land-locked Afghanistan. The only way in - or out - is through Pakistan. It seems that Pakistan is in a stronger position to ask us to give an account of ourselves. Isn't that a change?

Sincerely,

Bob Scroggins

New Milford, PA

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