Let’s restore the dignity of democracy

To the editor:

Regarding the forthcoming national elections, one of the things that highly disturbs me is the resulting determination that took place in the last election of year 2000. George W. Bush, if you recall, did not get elected, yet he is now seeking re-election.

The Supreme Court declared Al Gore the loser in the Electoral College despite securing the popular vote. The Electoral College is elected by the voters to elect the President and the Vice President. Each state’s elections are in equal number to its members in Congress. They are expected to cast their votes for the candidate chosen by the popular vote in their state. This process was in some way, manner or form considered and decided by the Supreme Court behind tightly shut doors. Their decision and final ruling was that the loser of the popular vote was to be President of the United States and the winner of the popular vote was the loser.

To this day no valid, or clear explanation, no details of procedure, and no named individual voting tally of the judges has been offered. History was made, and the people’s choice was brushed aside.

The current campaign is getting mean and dirty. It is besmirching the dignity and the intended manner of an honorable and free election. It is also a sad travesty of ethical behavior, integrity and the meaning of democracy’s honorable and fair intent, as well as the character of our society.

Let us not have another disturbing scenario of the Florida voting circus and its controversial, if not problematic, conclusion that was never fully explained.

Seeing war from the inside changes your perception

To the editor:

John Kerry, “patriot or traitor”? Consider this.

He served in Vietnam. He served under fire. He had buddies wounded and killed. He saw war from the inside, and he saw that the Vietnam War was not as reported.

He came home and knew he had to speak his conscience. The war must stop. To this end, he testified before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee in 1971. He spoke of war crimes from accounts of other Vietnam veterans. Given the heavy civilian death and destruction, he asked, why were we there?

He has been villianized for speaking out, in most cases by those who never served at all or in actual combat.

I was there. I spent 13 of 15 months on search and destroy missions from the central highlands to the DMZ as a combat medic with the 101st Airborne [‘67-’68]. We fought hard. Some missions lasting 70 to 80 days, getting resupplied every seven to 10 days with food and medical supplies, ammo and new troops to replace the dead and wounded. Stress was ever present. War crimes did happen. No soldier should have to go through what my guys went through while questioning “Why?”

Many of us returned to the states but never quite came home. Many committed suicide, unable to deal with the nightmares [over 60,000]. Some, like myself, clung to the notion that maybe the lessons learned were worth the costs. Others clung to the notion that we could have won if given the chance, even if we had to kill every last one of them.

We should not shoot the messenger. We should reach from within our hearts to see the truth laid before us and act accordingly.

To say he jeopardized the lives of the soldiers still fighting is like saying George W. Bush is directly responsible for over 900 U.S. soldiers killed and thousands wounded since he said, “Bring ‘em on” while less than 200 were killed in the “war”.

Once again I find myself asking “Why?” Have we learned?

John Kerry was right to speak out against the war.

He is a patriot.

Illusionists

To the editor:

“We are an empire now and when we act we create our own reality,” said a senior advisor to the President in a recent interview with Ron Suskind of the New York Times Magazine.

This explains why the President appears so out of touch with reality. Protesters are kept out of earshot by local police wherever Mr. Bush speaks. The President does not read the papers and only watches the sports channels on TV. “I rely on my advisors to keep me informed,” he has said many times. But his advisors admit that they [the administration] create their own reality. This also explains why Mr. Bush was so confused and inarticulate during the first debate. Mr. Kerry gave him a glimpse at the reality of the lives of tens of millions of Americans for the first time, and Mr. Bush was the proverbial deer caught in the headlights. This administration has taken the new-age/self-help principle of “creating your own reality” and turned it into an imperial policy.

In self-help terms “to create your own reality” means visualizing your future as a divine human being. No government can visualize and create the reality for each individual citizen of the world. This is an individual, God-given right called freedom. A government can, however, create illusions, and it is an illusion to call chaos and 15,000 casualties in Iraq “Freedom on the March.” It is an illusion when states are forced to cut school budgets and Mr. Bush calls it “No Child Left Behind.” It is an illusion that “America is safer under Bush/Cheney,” when Iraq has become a terrorist breeding ground since the war started, Osama Bin Laden has not been killed, the Anthrax killer has not been found, Iran and Korea have developed more nuclear power, we have fewer allies than ever, and we cannot even ensure sufficient flu vaccines for our population. It is only an illusion that can justify further tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans when the $236 billion budget surplus became a $415 billion deficit over the past four years. It is an illusion to say “the economy is strong and getting stronger” when 1.3 million Americans have sunk below the poverty line during this administration. It is an illusion that doing away with the responsibility of paying into Social Security is in fact “privatization.” The illusion that Mr. Kerry was unworthy of his Vietnam medals was created by “The Swift Boat Veterans for Truth,” and Mr. Bush created the illusion that he was a “uniter not a divider,” when he forced the 2000 election into his favor. Four years later the country is seriously divided.

In the words of the same senior advisor to Mr. Bush, there are those “who believe that solutions emerge from judicious study of discernable reality, this is the reality-based community,” and then there are those who believe the judicious study of discernable reality “is not the way the world works anymore, we are an empire now, and when we act we create our own reality.”

But when the real lives of real citizens are not of consequence unless they match the created reality, this is “a grand delusion.”

Just raise my taxes

To the editor:

I finally figured it all out and it comes down to one word, greed. It seems the only way anyone can be elected in our powerful nation of wealth and riches is to make one central promise: “I will not raise taxes!”

How selfish are we?

I am 38 years old and have been steadily employed since I was 14. Not by luck or privilege, but by honor, integrity and resilience. My average annual salary over 24 years has been under $30,000, yet through hard work, compassion, respect and love, I have managed to live with everything I need.

Why should I deserve more than my brother or my sister, and why should I deserve less? Though I am not financially wealthy, I vow to contribute all I can. So let me be one the first brave enough to say, please raise my taxes, just hear my voice.

Please raise my taxes, just respect my choice.

Please raise my taxes, just be fair.

Please raise my taxes, just remember the only true economy is water, soil, seeds and air. Please raise my taxes, just protect our Mother Earth.

Please raise my taxes, just teach our children from birth.

Please raise my taxes, just honor our elder’s words.

Please raise my taxes, just nurture the fishes, plants and birds.

Please raise my taxes, just care for the ill.

Please raise my taxes, just don’t use them to kill. Please raise my taxes, just respect everyone’s right to live.

Please raise my taxes, just try to forgive.

Please raise my taxes, just comfort the abused.

Please raise my taxes, just enlighten the confused.

Please raise my taxes, just raise them with love for the world, the one that each of us has the power to preserve.

Friends of Toronto Reservoir support Crumley and Crowley

To the editor:

After listening to candidates for Bethel Town Council at community meetings and discussions, over these past several weeks, and observing incumbents at the Bethel Town Board meetings, where they put forth their ideas as to how they would conduct town business, and resolve important issues, we conclude and agree with the position of The Friends Of Toronto Reservoir, PAC, that Dick Crumley and Jim Crowley would best represent the town.

Another endorsement of Crumley and Crowley

To the editor:

The Friends Of Toronto, PAC, who have over 1,900 petitions supporting the free and unencumbered access to the recreation launch site on the southeastern end of Toronto Reservoir, endorse Dick Crumley and Jim Crowley for Bethel Town Council. The recreation launch site is protected by Federal License #10482, and enables all citizens to use this launch area and trout stream.

It is important to have council representation favoring this access as well as the conservation easement provision from the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation. This easement lies in Bethel as well as the Toronto Reservoir access. Bethel should be looking to incorporate these wonderful resources into their Master Plan, which is under development now for the use of all residents.

Again, vote for Dick Crumley and Jim Crowley for Bethel Town Council on November 2.

Politicians do what politicians do

To the editor:

Susan Sullivan correctly quoted Chris Cunningham as having said, “It has always been an article of faith that the majority was in favor of it”(gambling).

She may, however, be dismayed to learn that in response to a direct question from Senator Charles Schumer, several years ago, in front of a substantial audience at The Neighborhood Facility in Monticello, concerning the relative numbers of those for and against gambling, Cunningham replied that the split was, “about 50-50.”

In other words, he appears to have said what served him best each time.

There is little doubt, it should be noted, that the balance against gambling has tipped markedly since then.

Her reference to Cunningham’s recent relative silence on gambling too is correct. (Remember that he and the legislature, in effect, represent Indian Nations, concerning gambling now, not us.) Nevertheless, one of the few things Cunningham has said was that the indefensible $500,000 gift to Monticello Raceway, in the form of taxpayer-financed tax rebates—which cost each of us money—was a “win-win” situation.

That is but one illustration of the cost to taxpayers of Cunningham’s self-interested capitulation to casino interests.

Ferreting out the underlying message

To the editor:

Relating to the present orchestrated struggle in the Middle East, there is an over-publicized feeling of support overflowing with the output of patriotic propaganda.

With the divisive decisions by President Bush intended to distort attention from the real issues, his associates compose red herring political speeches for him. This is accomplished by the intellectual selfishly motivated centralized Gotham-empowered newly formed neo-conservatives political groups, who cleverly forged an effective propaganda machine surpassing any political combination ever established.

Meanwhile our motionless economy programs were neglected for too long without serious attention of our being-infringed-upon domestic affairs.

We find our foreign policy team in an unceasing discord with itself trying to resolve the blame of the mess President Bush created in Iraq et al without losing any face.

Our nation finds itself living during the most dangerous moments with a president who is the most unqualified person to take the oath of office.

It has to be remembered: Because of the Afghanistan issue, our superiority of position at that time was a convenient sidetrack to really concentrate on Iraq.

The intended victim was Israel and the U.S. from their start of their misleading. The full-of-guile goal in the Middle East is to ensure crude oil control and development, and to try to create some form of effective regional domination with our presence.

Invaded-on people cannot feel free when they are unhappy because they are under the control of occupying forces, which find it convenient to forget that people are human.

P.S.: Why does Israel have an unending influence on our foreign affairs? After receiving a separate treaty of alliance with the impression keeping, its veiled formal commitment to a minimum, she holds atomics weapons of destruction with nobody making any attempts to stop.