November 4-10, 2004

mailbag

Letters to the Editor

by the Readers

Brown Bagged

I was amused by the opinion piece by the mayor of Darby Borough [Cover Story, "Clueless in D.C.," Paula M. Brown, Oct. 21, 2004]. Not amused by the pain she must feel as the mother of a serviceman in Iraq, but by her naive, knee-jerk liberalism. Hers is the cry of those on both sides who speak much more from emotion than from reason and logic. She spouts a great many of the code words and phrases of the Kerry machine from this campaign season. Bush is clueless. Bush lies. The war in Iraq is taking resources away from what we need at home, etc.

Kerry is just as clueless in his own way. He also—and this may come as a huge shock to those of you who haven't been paying careful attention—lies! The job of government is to make decisions on the allocation of our resources. Some things have to be cut to provide other, more necessary things.

We have to admit to each other that there are no easy answers for any of this. I know Bush lies, but what should we do in this most important of elections? I can't say for whom others should vote, but it is quite important that we look rationally at the issues and the candidates and [that] we make informed, rational decisions rather than emotional, lockstep ones.

Is the mayor of her borough implying that the local drug dealer is the main employer? Is she implying that her town is where gunshots are the norm and where kids carry assault weapons? If so, she might pay more attention to her job and let Bush take care of his.

Scott Delp
Jacksonville, Fla.

Who's Your Daddy?

I was sitting in a coffee shop the other day and I heard a little girl shout to her friend with an unmistakable hautiness, "My daddy's voting for John Kerry. Who's your daddy voting for?" I love the fact that political issues have reached even the youngest members of society, but there was something disturbing in the fact that the same tone could have said "My daddy drives a Lexus. What does your daddy drive?"

When I walk down the sidewalk and have someone ask me several times a day "Do you want to help us get George Bush out of office?" I realize that for the first time in my short lifetime, the bigots don't have a monopoly on hate. I would happily help the Democrats bring discretion to the war on terror, reign in the deficit or reform the medical system, but that's not the core message they've been selling and that's not what this little girl bought. After reading [Slant, "Why They Hate," Dr. Lawrence D. Blum, Oct. 21, 2004] and finding all about the Republicans' "self-hatred," their "hidden (unconscious) doubts," their "fear of freedom" and other "emotional preoccupations," I couldn't help but ask myself, isn't it enough for them to hate us because we hate them?

Brian Edwards
via e-mail