So Jim Rubens has contracted a bad case of buyer’s remorse, having recently “believed” in Donald Trump and naively “trusted” him to lead America out of the swamp, notwithstanding a “checkered personal history.” Checkered as in racist (Central Park Five); white supremacist (birtherism-mongering); predatory entitled kissing and genital-grabbing); and fraud-perpetrating (Trump U.) — to name just a few of blacker squares on the Trump game board.
Now though, Rubens’ self-described “desperate search for an alternative to the corrupt Washington establishment” has come a cropper. Thus, he finds it somehow meritorious to un-endorse the president publicly at the risk, apparently, of losing even more “political friends” — notoriously fickle, those kind! — than his original endorsement caused him to shed.
Well, I’m not buying it. The light Jim Rubens professes to see, serial candidate that he’s been, shines brightly on 2020 — his next shot at a seat in the U.S. Senate. In today’s light, Rubens knows, his support for a Donald Trump presidency (“President Trump will need a strong leader in the U.S. Senate to help turn our country around, and I’m ready,” he declared last August) has a darkness-at-noon quality about it that will eclipse his ever-hopeful electoral prospects yet again.
Jim Zien
Thetford
The headline of your lead story for Dec.7, labeled as an analysis, reads “Trump Move Threatens Islamic Peace.” The piece offers historical background leading up to President Donald Trump’s announcement that the U.S. would recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel after many years of the U.S. and our allies avoiding such an act as part of an effort to support a two-state solution to the struggle over Jerusalem between Israelis and their Palestinian neighbors.
Why characterize what’s at stake in Jerusalem, or in the broader Middle East if that’s the intention here, as “Islamic Peace?” It’s inaccurate and seems either prejudicial, ignorant or purposefully inflammatory as well.
Ignorance about Islam among Americans is rampant, as any poll seeking information on the topic will reveal. Headlines like this one add no information value to the story but instead support misunderstanding.
Hardly what one would expect from the Valley News.
Chris Weinmann
Norwich
The recent disgraceful performance by congressional Republicans in forcing through an immoral tax plan that would enrich the already super-wealthy and hurt lower- and middle-income Americans and possibly cause another Great Recession has shown the GOP to be without moral credibility. These Republican leaders care more about pleasing their rich donors than about the well-being of our nation.
Many of these same Republicans are now trying to discredit special prosecutor Robert Mueller as he works to reveal the treasonously criminal actions of the Trump campaign and administration, actions that threaten our constitutional democracy. This latest effort comes after a year of Republican stonewalling in the House and Senate investigations into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential elections in an effort to retain their hold on political power.
One can only hope we will soon witness the complete political demise of the Republican Party, its final days the metaphorical embodiment of a bloated corpse floating in the swamp of its own making.
Alice Morrison
Newbury, Vt.
Israel Isn’t an Oppressor
I am writing in response to the opinion piece by Dov Taylor that appeared in the Dec. 9 edition of the Valley News (“Light One Candle for the Maccabees, and Freedom Now.” In it he states that “the mighty state of Israel .. has now become the oppressor.”
Really? Is it Israel who indiscriminately sends rockets into civilian areas? Is it Israel who mows down innocent people with vehicles, who bombs buses, movie theaters, wedding parties, those praying in synagogues or sleeping in their beds? Is it Israel who encourages their people toward rage and violence and elevates murderers to martyrdom? Is it Israel who teaches their children from preschool that their adversaries are less than human and objects of hatred?
Since 1947, Israel has been not only willing, but desirous of exchanging land for peace. Time after time that has been rejected by the Palestinian leadership. In frustration, Israel gave Gaza to the Palestinians in the hope that they would establish the institutions of government to provide a decent life for their people and as a prototype for an eventual state on much of the West Bank. Instead, Gaza became a nest of terror whose aid from both Israel and other nations was funneled into making rockets, bombs and tunnels. The oppression of the Palestinian people and the “systematic cruelty” comes far less from Israel, trying to defend itself from terror, than from its own leadership.
I am not a fan of the current Israeli government and many of its policies, but I’m also not a fan of those who twist reality upside down. I don’t have the space to address the issue of Jerusalem in this letter, but for 2,000 years the Jews have prayed for our return to our city which is not, nor has ever been the capital of any other nation but Israel.
Michael Friedman
New London
Alabama’s recent special Senate election may prove that “family values” can mean something other than male control and dominance of women and minorities.
During the American Civil War, “family values” included the right to rape your wife, rape your slaves, and the right to break up slave families and tear them apart. Domestic violence — assault on your own family — was recognized as a problem long after animal shelters were established.
Anyone who follows Finding Your Roots, the PBS program with Henry Louis Gates Jr., can’t help but be astounded by the complexity of relations among the races in the U.S. before the Civil War. An African-American often took his name from a former slaveowner, and could easily have an ancestor sired by that same master. One woman on Roots was told her ancestor had 22 children, all by a white slave owner; unfazed, the woman replied, “Yes, we knew she was a ‘breeder.’ ” These are “family values?”
Perhaps we can learn something from our collective past.
Larry Burch
Meriden