Re: President's "Pioneers" set to tap state, June 22.
What an insult to the average American voter! Bush's "Pioneers" raised $100,000 each for his 2000 campaign. Now a more elite status is in the offing: "Ranger" - if one can raise $200,000 for Bush's 2004 re-election campaign. And who are these "Pioneers" and future "Rangers" - none other than corporate executives, lobbyists, developers and just plain rich, silver-spoon people with a security in life that millions can only dream of. Achieving this status, they receive special favors and even political appointments, not only for themselves but their spouses, children and relatives. Their arrogance disgusts me as all they are saying is: Step aside, average people! We have the money to by the power.
Where has our country been lead to since 2000?
We suffer the highest unemployment rate in nearly a decade.
We have the highest national budget deficit in our history. (We had a budget surplus in 2000.)
We still have a major health care problem with no resolution in sight.
We engaged in war, supposedly decided in our favor - yet it is still costing the taxpayer billions with no peace or definition.
Pioneers and Rangers will be coming in force as this is the real value placed on our country today. The rule of money! I will remain an average voter hoping to unseat Bush and his money train, and attempting to get our country back on track so all Americans can again enjoy our Democratic way of life.
-- Jack Burlakos, Kenneth City
Take a stand
Re: It starts with feeding people, Parade, June 22.
Pride in American citizen Louise Thomas and disgust in George W. Bush's campaign to media-blitz the citizens occurred all in the same day.
When millions can be given so freely for a campaign, then why can the government not find the help for those who are in need of education, health insurance and food? It appears there is a widening of those who have and those who have not in this country, with our legislators being massaged daily by lobbyists and industrialists.
For those who want to return our country to its ideology of helping others, locate the speech by Bill Moyers, "This is your story - the progressive story of America." I quote from that speech: "... What's right and good doesn't come naturally. You have to stand up and fight for it - as if the cause depends on you, because it does. Allow yourself that conceit - to believe that the flame of democracy will never go out as long as there's one candle in your hand."
Let not the voice of our forefathers be lost in the quest of those who fill their pockets and silence the voices of those who oppose their agenda. It is time to take a stand for democracy.
-- Norma M. Corry, Sun City Center
Not feeling safer
I am amazed and disappointed that the editorial Ashcroft's America and Robyn Blumner's column Shredding rights for no security gain, published in the June 8 Times, did not initiate more public outcry from your readers.
The United States wrongly accused hundreds of detainees and denied them basic due process, with the result that none of these detainees was guilty. Meanwhile U.S. taxpayer dollars foot the bill for excessively long confinement of people who are innocent of terrorist activity. Do I feel safer knowing that Attorney General John Ashcroft can take innocent immigrants or anyone defined as a "potential terrorist" in Ashcroft's personal view, lock them up and deny them U.S. constitutional rights? Absolutely not!
Americans are too comfortable and too often assume a "this can't happen to me" attitude. On June 22, a letter writer said, "I don't care how many foreign nationals have to be detained to guarantee my freedom. I don't care about a foreign national's rights." If this reader had done any research, he would have found out that none of the detainees had anything to do with terrorism, so the initial confinement was flawed and these persons posed no risk to his safety.
I'd like to see how he would feel if during an overseas vacation, he was randomly caught up in a sting that locked him away without due process or communication with lawyers or family. I bet he'd then be screaming for his rights!
My fear is that if Ashcroft is granted new powers to hold people indefinitely if they are suspected of terrorist ties (and you don't have to be a foreign national to be a suspect!) then it is my rights and every reader's rights that are at risk. Where will it stop? Do I feel safer knowing that my rights could mean nothing at all? Absolutely not!
Thank you, St. Petersburg Times, for speaking out.
-- Deborah Goodenough, Brooksville
A perspective too narrow
If the title of your Sunday opinion section, "Perspective," is meant to denote breadth of vision and comprehensiveness of view, that perspective was sorely lacking in last Sunday's edition.
With almost half the issue devoted to the Middle East, the only problems identified as obstacles to peace were the "settlements" (two articles) and Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's determination to respond to every terrorist attack on Israel's citizens by attacking the terrorist leaders who organize and direct those attacks.
Not a word about the Palestinian terrorist organizations like Hamas that are dedicated to the destruction of the state of Israel - and for whom Tel Aviv is just another "settlement." Not a word about the vile anti-Jewish teaching that is unremittingly directed at every segment of the Palestinian community, but especially their youth - from schoolchildren to adolescents to university students. Not a word about the absence of any constituency - any organization, any voice - within the Palestinian community that is willing to come forward to advocate recognition of the right of Jews to live in peace in their own land, a right that was recognized by the League of Nations more than 80 years ago, and by the United Nations more than 50 years ago. Not a word about the hundreds of millions of dollars contributed by Western governments to the Palestinian Authority for the building of their economy - diverted to terrorism and private bank accounts instead of the development of a viable economy for their people. Not a word about the destruction of whatever private economy once prevailed in the West Bank, so that all the strands of power could be concentrated in the hands of the self-selected "leadership."
If that is your view of "perspective," it certainly is not what your readers have the right to expect.
-- Barry Augenbraun, Dr. Bruce Epstein, co-chairs, Jewish Community Relations Council of the Pinellas Jewish Federation, Largo
No way to make law
Re: New law isn't just antidrug, it's antiparty, by Robyn Blumner, June 22.
The column concerning the new "antiparty law" (Illicit Drug Anti-Proliferation Act) contained a reference to something far more sinister than this new law. Blumner noted that the subject act was inserted by Sen. Joseph Biden into the popular Amber Alert bill and passed without a single hearing, although the act had not been part of the Senate or House versions of the bill. This is a dangerous loophole in the way laws are created. The one law has nothing to do with the other. Why are such shady dealings allowed in this process?
Biden did a good job of hiding something he did not want discovered, apparently, and the system supports such dangerous actions. This is sneaky and certainly should cause mistrust of those who would use the process in such a manner. Shame on him!
-- John M. McNamara, St. Petersburg
Going too far
Re: Pvt. Lynch: Casualty of war and media hype, by Phil Gailey, June 22.
Pvt. Jessica Lynch will always be a hero in my thoughts forever. More than that, she is a living miracle to the fact that, even when being most egregiously injured, she had the strength and determination to tough it out and make it out from her Iraqi captors and be returned home to her native soil, alive.
Don't you think you may have gone over the line a bit by trashing a very severely wounded female solder serving her country to get a better education and become a teacher? Do you guys kick grandmas, Easter bunnies and little kids for fun, too?
-- Larry A. Ridder, Spring Hill
[Last modified June 29, 2003, 08:26:27]
