BARACK OBAMA
An eye-opening read
The ridiculous situation in which our country is held captive by our own politicians began even before President Obama was sworn in. He has been unfairly fought with calculated misinformation by the whole Republican Congress, the conservative talking heads, even Democrats.
I was opposed to him while he was running for office and for most of what he did during his first term. But my mind was changed by the book “The New New Deal,” by Michael Grunwald.
The disastrous fiscal problems Obama would inherit before his inauguration are well-known. What is not well-known is how he explored, with many others of various viewpoints, how to solve the problems for the country’s sake, not necessarily that of his party. Throughout all the discussions and arguments were the two themes of short- and long-term recoveries. How the stimulus programs to solve these played into the first four years of the Obama presidency is the basis for the book. With what I now know I would have voted for him, but not other Democrats.
Read this book only if you think you have an open mind, then you will understand why the headlines today exist as they do.
MICHAEL CIVIELLO, Boise
The job description
Every article that talked about the fiscal cliff — whether print, TV or radio — tells us that the president cut his vacation short to go back and do his job. Does he not know that his job is to run the country and try to get things back on track? Oh yeah, he doesn’t know his job. Are we to feel sorry for him to do what people elected him to do? Hope all who voted for him are smiling now.
JACOB FRANZEN, Meridian
We are leaderless
I always thought Obama’s problem was his ideology. I still believe that, but I also see now that it is more than that. He is also pathological, a true megalomaniac. That is pretty scary. If he wasn’t so, he would have been at the fore of the fiscal cliff negotiations, but he demonstrably stayed away. Why? So that he cannot be blamed. Instead, he has given up nothing, after his pledge to work with the right. He is not a standup guy. In the midst of delicate negotiations, he has spiked the ball in front of the right, exhibiting his inability to really work with anyone but himself.
It is amazing to me that this man can still fool the people. He called the deficit under Bush unpatriotic, yet he only increased it exponentially. He talked of working with the right if he won, and he has done nothing but the opposite. He has exhibited no ability to run a country. We are leaderless. I am a veteran. I’ve never had a leader that I wouldn’t give my life for. This is one man I wouldn’t raise a finger for. And it’s definitely not because he is black.
DEAN O. MUEHLBERG, Meridian
DAN FINK
Return to Lord’s ways
Rabbi Dan Fink’s Dec. 29 article, “The proliferation of guns is a moral issue for all of us,” starts with a parable attributed to Saul Alinsky. Interesting. Saul Alinsky is known for his book “Rules for Radicals,” dedicated to “Luthifer, the first radical,” now used to transform America from its Judeo-Christian values to a secular or “open society” socialist nation. The parable encourages us to “go upstream” and seek out root causes of critical issues such as the one used, finding babies floating in the river. We should definitely do that regarding crimes committed with guns.
The article also referenced Isaiah (Isaiah 2:4) but mischaracterized it, stating, “Isaiah urged us to beat swords into plowshares.” Reading the entire chapter, we find that Isaiah had actually prophesized the result of the preceding verse: “And many peoples will come and say, ‘Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob; that he may teach us concerning his ways and that we may walk in his paths.’ ”
The rabbi is correct, the root causes are moral in nature, but the solution is not controlling guns but returning to the ways of the great lawgiver.
TONY PATTERSON, Emmett
The person, not the tool
Regarding the article on Dec. 29 by Rabbi Dan Fink on proliferation of guns.
He writes about an article by Saul Alinsky of babies floating down the river to illustrate why the use of guns should be limited or maybe banned.
My first thought was of aborted babies in the river and those that have tried to save them for the past 40 years. It really isn’t the “butchers” that ripped those sweet little babies apart. It was the curette. If we just get rid of the tools used to kill these little ones, abortions would stop.
How wrong you would be. Until we again have moral values, respect for human life and make people accountable for their actions, there will be killings. If not a gun, it would be a bomb, knife, poison, etc.
There will always be “butchers.” There will always be tools to do good or evil. It is the person not the tool. Tools do nothing unless in the hands of man.
JAN STOKER, Boise
POLITICS
How gullible are we?
Are we seeing the new standard for gullible?
I watch with amusement as the visitors to GlennBeckistan are terrified by the argument that soon our paper money will be worthless and the only safe haven is gold, which the Beck Corporation will gladly supply in exchange for your soon-to-be worthless paper money. Really.
Now reports are emerging that the NRA arms lobby secretly funneled hundreds of thousands into the Obama campaign knowing that an Obama win would result in millions in gun sales. True to paranoid form, the Obama win and the recent tragedy have sent the right wingers into a gun-buying frenzy, thus fulfilling the scheme to fill the coffers of the gun industry with millions of dollars. To all the gullible gun buyers, remember that when the government does come for all your newly purchased guns, you could have had a boat instead.
MICHAEL CLARK, Boise
KINDERGARTEN
See for yourself; take the time to volunteer
Abolish kindergarten (letter to the editor, Dec. 10)? It would be nice if all moms and dads could stay home with their kids to home-school them, but not possible when it takes two parents to provide food and a home for the family. Five-year-olds, packed off to school to spend all day among strangers? (My goodness, just a good thing that children make friends so quickly and by day 2, are already sorting out their new friends.) These little kinders are already writing their names, learning letter sounds and reading before they have been in this “nonefficient” classroom for long. They also learn sharing, manners and getting along with “strangers” that being at home sometimes does not develop. Twenty-five or 26 little ones in a classroom make it difficult, but each and every one develops different skills through their teacher’s expertise. If you honestly believe that kindergarten is “nonproductive” and needs to be abolished, ask a first-grade teacher what he or she thinks, and then please take time and volunteer in one of their classrooms. You might be surprised to see all the learning going on there!
LOIS LANDERS, volunteer, Nampa School District
FLU RISK
Don’t expose workers to contagious illnesses
I work in an industry where I make constant customer contact. It’s amazing how often people tell me they have the flu or a cold. It is selfish, inconsiderate and downright rude to knowingly expose someone to an illness. If you had to stay home from work because you’re sick, reschedule your appointment for another time. If you have a fever, you’re probably contagious. I have six paid sick days. How many days did you stay home because you were sick? I’ll probably lose the same amount of time if I catch the flu that made you stay home, and people do this to us all the time. This flu season I’ve had a customer cough directly into my face without covering and another tell me she was vomiting into a bucket just a few hours before I came to her home. Show some consideration to the people who work in your homes and don’t expose us to your contagious illnesses. Unless canceling the service call could cause damage to your property or be a life-threatening issue, it can wait!
SEAN NEWTON, Nampa
ABORTION
Awaiting a response
It is Pro-Life Month, and I have yet to hear an answer to the question I posed last August: Why should an unborn child suffer the death penalty for the crime of its father? See you all at the March for Life Jan. 19.
TRAVIS BREWER, Boise
