Sunday, Jul. 12, 2009

Letters 7/12

Not the same country

It breaks my heart to think that the America that my children will grow up in is only a shadow of the America I have been privileged to experience. Not only is our government broke, but nearly 50 cents of every $1 that Congress and the president spends is borrowed money.

And if Congress passes, and the president signs either the universal health care bill or the cap and trade bill, we may very well spiral down a hole that we and our descendants may never be able to escape from.

I am well aware that many people feel the government should provide health care for a substantial percentage of this country's population. But any universal coverage plan will more than likely be disastrous, not only financially, but for the quality of care as well.

Massachusetts already has a universal health care program, very similar to what the president and Congress propose for the rest of the country. In that state, anyone wanting to make an appointment to see a doctor has to wait an average of nearly 51 days.

And with cap and trade, if they succeed with immediately cutting significant amounts of imported oil, people will wish for the days when gas was only $4 a gallon. And think how expensive utilities will be if they tax coal-burning power plants out of business.

Brace yourselves.

Gerard Luebbers

Carlyle

1979 all over again

How reminiscent of the 1979 hostage crisis to see the Iranians arresting and detaining British embassy employees. The members of the revolution have no sense of understanding and respect.

The government of Iran, under the direction of President Ahmadinejad (one of the terrorists who took over the U.S. embassy in '79), has turned its back on this and so many other matters relating to foreign policy.

To make it seem that the arrests have credibility, the Iranians say the U.K. embassy personnel were involved in recent protests against Ahmadinejad and the suspect Iranian election process, an argument that the British Foreign Office vociferously denies. The Iranians also suggest that the U.S. had something to do with fomenting unrest in the same election. (Personally, I think ACORN could have been involved, but that's another issue.)

Somehow our president cannot see the similarity of the current events and those in 1979, probably because he doesn't understand history or is too inexperienced to know what to do. Our governmental leadership wants to "get along" with these thugs and terrorists. It shouldn't take 30 years to discover that the rabid dog in the neighborhood is indeed rabid.

What can we expect? We can probably expect the same old, ignorant antics that Jimmy Carter performed in 1979 when he wasn't able to deal with the same old thugs and terrorists. If Carter would have dealt firmly with the Iranian invaders in 1979, we wouldn't have the many problems with Iran today.

Jim Shively

Belleville

Fueling terrorism

Several letter writers were upset with the notion that the tax day tea party protests were a scam promoted by Fox News and the Republican Party. Newt Gingrich and Dick Armey could be seen all over Fox doing just that.

These protests are part of a conscious effort by Fox and other Republicans to appeal to the right-wing, pro-gun, pro-life, anti-tax, anti-government people.

The fearmongers at Fox and in Congress are doing their best to incite more domestic terrorism. The Timothy McVeighs and Eric Rudolphs are taking heed. We've already seen some of their work.

Concerning taxes, please explain the following: Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush gave huge tax cuts to the wealthy. Both gave us record deficits. Bill Clinton raised taxes on the richest 2 percent in 1993. Every Republican voted against it. Many like Gingrich and Phil Gramm made idiotic predictions of recession to follow. They were wrong.

The next eight years saw the longest period of economic growth in American history. Deficits declined from 1993 to 1997. Surpluses increased from 1998 to 2000. Violent crimes and abortions declined after 12 years of increases under pro-life presidents Reagan and Bush 41. Please explain our economic prosperity in spite of all those overtaxed entrepreneurs in the '90s.

It took eight years of greed, neglect and incompetence to give us this mess. It will take more than six months to fix it.

Gene Robke

Carlyle

About voter fraud

Why is it that possible voter fraud in Cahokia is not treated the same as voter fraud in East St. Louis? Every time there is fraud in East St. Louis the U.S. attorney investigates; every time in Cahokia, St. Clair County state's attorney investigates.

Where is the parity, when does the reverse discrimination stop? The good people of Cahokia deserve better treatment if there was voter fraud. Because of the investigation, all of the village's records have been sealed by whomever.

James J. Harrigan

Cahokia

Case for socialism

This country needs more socialism, not less. It was capitalist crooks at AIG and on Wall Street who caused our economic trouble, not socialists.

Jim Walters

Belleville

Not ready to forgive

There it was, finally. I picked up the paper to read the obituary of Robert McNamara, dead at the ripe old age of 93. He was one of the "best and brightest" who used a supposed attack in August 1964 to start a war that never should have been fought.

When his book came out, it revealed that by 1967, he no longer believed the war could be won. The Tet Offensive sealed the deal in January 1968. Yet he continued to ship tens of thousands off to war.

The numbers are chilling from 1968-1975. When American involvement ended on the roof of the American Embassy, 21,202 had died. Of that number, 1,413 were from Missouri and 2,934 were our fellow Illinoisans. From 1976-1998, 839 more died from injuries or illnesses related to their valiant service. These are McNamara's dark legacy.

All of us who came of age at that time remember burying our fathers, brothers and friends. The wounds to our national hearts are evident to this day. The actions McNamara and his contemporaries perpetrated on not only our national treasure, our soldiers, but 2 million to 3 million Vietnamese were criminal, and were tragic on a genocidal scale.

I preach forgiveness because it is necessary to heal all wounds. However, I cannot find it in my heart to forgive this man. Maybe with his death, I'll be able to, but not now, not today. May God give us strength and courage to do so.

Dennis M. Gilbert

Waterloo