William Chase’s Aug. 30 Forum letter, “Hillary Clinton and the Truth,” fails at the analysis of truth. The real truth: The GOP has been on a campaign to slay Hillary Clinton (politically) ever since that uppity woman attempted health care reform during Bill Clinton’s administration.
This is what the GOP is all about: trying to make itself look legitimate and truthful while pouring massive resources into trashing a woman who they knew would someday run for major political office (and spending a lot of your tax dollars in the process). In other words, Clinton’s GOP-fabricated “lies” tell us more about the GOP than her. Attacking her while ignoring its own massive infractions and failures. Then again, making a whole lot of noise to deflect attention is the whole point of Republicans’ attacks and obstructionism in the first place.
Mr. Chase is doing his part for the GOP cause, trying to distract us from GOP tyranny and extraordinary failures.
Wilfred SmithNorwich
Citing religiously-directed prognostications from the 17th and 19th centuries, columnist Randall Balmer subtly berates those who view the present as worse than the past (“America in Decline?”, Aug. 28). I tend to agree the present is usually better than the good old days.
He then uses this sentiment to color the 2016 election, incredulously asking twice: “Do Republicans actually believe that America was better off eight years ago before Obama took office?”
Consider the opposite side of this coin — do Democrats believe America is better off today?
Regardless of whom one wants to blame: The Federal debt has doubled to $56,000 for every person, baking in a lower standard of living for our grandchildren. The labor force participation rate has been in steady decline. The unemployment rate has improved, but that only measures people receiving unemployment benefits, not all those out of work. Wages for working-class people are stagnant, while the wealthy see record gains in income and assets.
Although Ballmer alleges it is Republicans who care about a strong stock market, current Democrat administration monetary policies have driven this inequality.
Black Americans in particular have fallen further behind, according to almost every major economic indicator. Mr. Ballmer, do not explain away shootings of policemen as caused by racist profiling by the police themselves, or because our politicians will not expand gun controls. We have a culture problem of victimization that our post-racial president refuses to acknowledge.
Then we have the world. ISIS has gone from nonexistence to a reign of global terror. Much of the world is unsafe to travel under an American passport. Because America’s president is embarrassed to lead, the world is undeniably less stable.
Worst of all, our leaders have looked us directly in the eye and lied, repeatedly, knowing there are no consequences even when their lies are revealed. The exceptional American experiment in self-government will end when people no longer believe we are a nation of laws with trustworthy governors. We are dangerously on this brink.
Are we truly better off? Or is it time to get off the current path? I am not a Trumpist, but the slogan “Make America Great Again” rings true.
Tim DreisbachSouth Royalton
With Labor Day’s approach, teachers and students across America studiously review their school calendar. Included in those calendars, and spaced out about once a month, are our country’s official federal holidays. While these important dates are intended to remind us of key events in America’s history and its chosen heroes, they also happen to anchor each of our upcoming family vacations (Hooray!)
Although I have long since retired, my life now being one long vacation, I still anticipate such former respites as Veterans Day, Memorial Day (Hooray, a three-day weekend!), and Independence Day. Parents who are still expected to work, however, celebrate with far less enthusiasm, as their cherubs will require supervision. (Sorry, but hooray anyway!)
We have older holidays, such as Thanksgiving (for which we can thank New Hampshire’s Sarah Josepha Hale, and the one that includes both Christmas and New Year’s Day. Three-day weekends honor George Washington (the first, and only president given the public’s respect while he was in office), and Martin Luther King. Besides the aforementioned, the only other holiday that focuses on an individual is Columbus Day.
Counting all my years in public education, first as a student, then as a teacher, I have enjoyed about 50 American celebrations of fall, thanks to the man who never even set foot on the American mainland. (Hooray nonetheless.) One has to question why.
Christopher Columbus, sometimes identified as being the son of Pope Innocent VIII, is not an American, never lived in America, certainly did not discover America, but has a notorious reputation for his treatment of Native Americans. That legacy includes a massive infection of indigenous tribes and horrific accounts of torture, mutilation, murder, rape, sex with children, and his introduction of the Atlantic slave trade — not to mention America’s wild hog population. During his four voyages, a period that is considered genocidal, his visits claimed the lives of uncounted Native Americans.
Is it not long past the time to reconsider the Columbus Day holiday?
Ralph Epifanio Canaan