Politics must be put aside for our good
It was predictable that not a single House Republican would vote for the stimulus package, because the Republicans remaining in the House represent very conservative red districts. They don't have to worry about being re-elected, and they'll do anything to resist Obama. Their constituents are right-wing zealots (aka, Rush Limbaugh dittoheads), who were delighted to hear Limbaugh say, "I hope he fails."
Senator Sessions of Alabama urged his Republican colleagues: "You know, don't even bother to pretend to negotiate with the Democrats, just declare now you are going to vote against it."
Senate Republicans had hoped to obstruct the economic stimulus package with a filibuster, because Democrats didn't have enough votes to win on a straight party-line vote. However, in the Senate, we saw a little bit of give and take to secure a bipartisan bill. Unlike in the House, eight Republican senators were aware that Obama had won their state and that they no longer represented a very conservative red state. Fortunately, "three make-believe Republicans _ Specter, Collins and Snow," recognize that if Obama fails, America fails.
Eisenhower said: "We must achieve both security and solvency. In fact, the foundation of military strength is economic strength." Today, our economic strength has sunk to its lowest point in 70 years. Our military has already been weakened by two unnecessary wars, and Tom Sears and congressional Republican dittoheads want to engage in political gamesmanship instead of tending to the business of improving our economy.
The theory behind Keynesian economics is that when the economy is in a severe depression, government has to spend money that people won't spend for themselves. Although it would be wise to spend it on things we need and will value for a long time, it must be spent fast, even if it's spent on worthless things.
Jim O'Leary
Delhi
Our head in sand on Iraq, Afghanistan
If I were a cartoonist, I would draw a picture of Uncle Sam sticking his head in the sand of the Middle East, where thousands of innocent people are buried.
Do we see what our invasion of Iraq accomplished? According to John Tirman, executive director and principal research scientist at the MIT Center for International Studies, there are now about 4.5 million displaced Iraqis, people who have had to abandon their homes in their own country. Iraqi war dead number approximately 1 million. There are an estimated 5 million orphans, according to Iraqi officials.
And now, what are we hoping to accomplish through sending additional soldiers to Afghanistan? A January issue of The Nation magazine reported that up to 500 Afghan civilians, most of them children and teenage boys, are dying every month from U.S. cluster bombs. No wonder there has been a surge in the recruitment of Afghan suicide bombers!
Hilda Wilcox
Cooperstown
Evolution disbelief takes leap of faith
Ms. DeVivo's arguments against Dr. Sessions' support of natural selection are understandable. They are founded on the same grounds that made Darwin reluctant to publish his ideas and that have animated the resistance to them for 150 years.
The notion that the vast variety of living things is the consequence of an unguided, material process working itself out over time is difficult to believe. And Ms. DeVivo tells us why.
Natural selection does not allow humans to maintain the belief that they are the special product of creation or even that they are an inevitable result of a natural process. It tells us that bacteria mutate and multiply or die following the same process that got us here, that the HIV virus has the same "right" to be here as we do, that no organism was, is or ever will be "intended" to take over the world, and that all living things take their chances.
The article of faith here is the disbelief in natural selection. For 150 years, natural selection has been attacked from the position that it just can't be true. And in all that time no alternative, material explanation that better explains the observable facts has been proposed.
Believe me; all of us, scientists included, would love to have a demonstration that does not require a leap of faith that we have a special place in the universe. Until then, we will have to make do with humbly thanking our lucky stars that humans evolved sufficient brain power to enjoy asking how and why we are here.
The "miracle" is that out of all the myriad alternative evolutionary outcomes we are here and can have this discussion.
Duncan Smith
Oneonta
Please don't park in handicapped spaces
I wish people without permits would stop parking in Riverside School's handicapped parking places. The handicapped parking places should be open for people who need them.
The parking lot is too far for people to ride in their wheelchairs. It is too hard for people with disabilities to get to the school doors from the parking lot.
Help us stop people from parking in the handicapped spots. Please do not park in any handicapped spots without a permit.
Alyza Kroll
Oneonta
Alyza, 9, is a third-grader at Riverside Elementary School.
Scott Murphy will bring fresh ideas
Scott Murphy, Democratic candidate for our 20th Congressional District, typifies a kind of public servant represented by our former great governors Averill Harriman and Nelson Rockefeller. Like these titans, Scott is grounded in the world of free enterprise. Like them, be believes that the way forward for America lies in the hands of hard-working citizens, rather than government programs. But like them, he advocates a free enterprise mindful of public responsibility and the good of the community. That's why his company has been dedicated to helping companies with truly useful agendas.
Scott is one of those rare talented individuals who might make a real difference in Washington. A handful of members of the House are more than politicians, being also real experts on public policy. Scott has the potential to be one of that select group. In other words, he has the potential to be the kind of outstanding representative of which a district can be proud.
Having a man like Scott in the House is urgent now. We face a growing and deepening economic crisis. Beyond that is the upstate tragedy that has turned Troy, Rome and Syracuse into ghost towns.
No doubt Jim Tedisco is a perfectly good barbershop politician. He will get the potholes filled and bring home this or that piece of pork. Can he help either his district or the nation as we enter the red zone of financial crisis? I doubt it.
We need fresh, innovative leadership willing to look at bold programs for a time of crisis. We need real expertise rather than back-room backslapping. The national Republican Party mortgaged its future _ and ours _ to the financial sector.
Our recovery and America's future lie with American companies making American products with American workers. Scott Murphy understands this and will work for it.
Richard Mulliken
Jefferson
