|
Losing
Hope
To
the Editor:
Matt
Welch writes, in his expose on John McCain [“Unmasking the
Maverick, April 10], that the Arizona senator declares himself
a man who “detests war,” a la Orwell’s 1984 doublespeak.
Welch the cipher has transposed McCain’s statement, letting
us not-so-savvy in on a secret: McCain really means he detests
peace.
McCain is not the maverick as he was labeled in 2000. They
now tell me that McCain is worse than GWB. The Iraq War will
last a hundred years. McCain said so. Or did he?
I have never voted for any Republican in any election, ever.
But I have had enough. After watching this Democratic debacle
they call a primary, my options are this: either sitting this
one out, voting for Nader (that is, if he can get on the ballot
in our so-called democracy), or casting my vote for McCain.
I will not vote for Obama. He is a shaman, an illusion, a
fraud. Hope and change are tossed around like marketing buzz
words. Obama’s claim of being a “uniter, not a divider” will
prove to be as great a charade as our current impostor-in-chief.
The inept Democratic Party this year are honing in on equaling
a truly historic disaster, the election of 1968. It was the
last time in my adult life I was not proud to be a Democrat.
For the Democratic Party to claim that what we are witnessing
this year is true democracy in action is a canard. With one
state holding a caucus, another a primary, one allowing anyone
to show up on the day of the election and vote for whomever
they choose, while another holds a closed primary, this mishmash
of state-by-state anti-climactic contests is an embarrassment
to the electoral process.
The gender and racial biases which have been stirred up from
40 years ago should have RFK and MLK rolling in their graves.
They would not recognize this party of greed. As Nader so
succinctly stated, “There is not a dime’s worth of difference
between them Dems or them Republicans.”
McCain is no more a maverick than Obama is JFK, MLK, RFK.
Many Democrats seem determined to bend over backwards to appease
Obama, while incessantly trumpeting his anti-Iraq war stance
from 2002. Beware the wrath that will be heaped upon the person
who would dare criticize the Great Black Hope.
Democrats are so desperate to elect someone, anyone, as president,
they will excuse the blatant hypocrisies of Obama, shoving
their man across the finishing line in November, before anyone
notices.
2008 is not 1968. We could have never contemplated a woman
and a black running a viable campaign for the White House
back then. We have come far, but we have far to go.
McCain is no more a maverick than he is a warmonger. These
labels are nothing but clever attempts by a media who have
already deemed Obama the newest star on the horizon, worthy
of their collective praise.
Will Metroland be a maverick this year? Will they do
something completely different? Or is their enthusiastic endorsement
of Barack Obama, like that mushroom cloud from 2003, imminent?
I await your decision this fall. Surprise me.
Dennis
Dzamba
Guilderland
Dangerous
Games
To
the Editor:
Thanks
to Jo Page for bringing public attention to the controversial
2008 Summer Olympics in Bejing in her recent column “Games
Above All?” [Reckonings, March 27].
The slogan for Summer Games is “One World, One Dream,” but,
while Chinese officials dream of new infrastructures, international
prestige, and economic benefits, the Tibetans they deny independence
live a daily nightmare of violence, torture, imprisonment,
exile, and murder.
The official Olympics website says the goal of the Olympic
movement “is to contribute to building a peaceful and better
world by educating youth through sport practiced without discrimination
of any kind.” In 2001, when China won the bid to host this
summer’s Games, it was supposedly contingent on their promise
to cease human rights violations. Seven years have passed,
yet violations remain rampant and severe. Until Tibetans are
treated with peace instead of discrimination, China is failing
to fulfill the one true dream of the Olympics.
The United States has the opportunity to use the Bejing Olympics
as political leverage in the campaign to free Tibet, but because
this issue isn’t a ticket on the presidential agenda, officials
are pretending to wield no power over the games. To claim
that politics are not a part of the Olympics, as spokesperson
Sean McCormack did, is an egregious farce. Indeed, it is with
politically charged motivations that McCormack and the presidency
he represents pretend the Olympics are solely about athletics
in order to bypass the issue of Tibet. Believe this: If there
were oil in Tibet, McCormack would be singing a different
Olympic anthem.
Elizabeth
Conway
Albany
Correction
Last
week, in one of our Earth Day articles [“Big Ball of Energy,”
April 17], we calculated that 0.75 percent of 54,000 is 4,050.
Wrong! Ask a fifth grader: It’s 405. We promise to use our
calculators in the future.
Metroland
welcomes typed, double-spaced letters addressed to the editor.
Metroland reserves the right to edit letters for length
or clarity; 300 words is the preferred maximum. You must include
your name, address and day and evening telephone numbers.
We will not publish letters that cannot be verified, nor those
that are anonymous, illegible, irresponsible or factually
inaccurate.
Send
to:
Letters, Metroland
419 Madison Ave., Albany, NY 12210
e-mail:
metroland@metroland.net
fax:
463-3726
|
Site
Search 
