Letters to the Editor 06-14-1999
July 28, 2016 at 4:25 p.m.
By -
- Offensive Advertising - Clinton's Legacy - Relay For Life - Flag Burning
Offensive Advertising
Editor, Times-Union:I was amazed when I booted up my computer and clicked on my Internet icon and KC Online opening page contain a picture of a lady advertising a lap dance. A man at work was talking about such a dance in where once inside a strip club, the female dancer dances on the laps of her potential customers enticing them to further acts in the back room. Is this the kind of advertisements we want on our computer screens? Noooooooooo.
Stan Stutzman
via e-mail
Clinton's Legacy
Editor, Times-Union:For more than six years, we have witnessed the pathetic spectacle of a small man in search of stature. He has tried on others' reputations as if they were sports jackets. He has attempted to take the auras of great men as his own to cloak his own shortcomings, which are many.
Bill Clinton was going to be another FDR. Then he was going to be just like JFK. Then he was the new Truman. As each comparison was measured and found wanting, a new name was floated. The latest now is Winston Churchill. "I want to talk to you about Kosovo today but just remember this - it's about our values," he said. "What if someone had listened to Winston Churchill and stood up to Adolph Hitler earlier?" Ah, yes; Bill and Winston, voices crying in the wilderness.
Bill Clinton is unique in one respect. No other American president has ever devoted his energies to a public search for a "legacy" as he has. Bob Woodward's book "The Choice," which is about the 1996 Presidential election, and in it Bill Clinton is quoted complaining to his aides that he was held back by an accident of birth since history wasn't living up to his vast talents. "I feel like I was born out of my time," he said. "I should have been president during the second World War."
In his book, Dick Morris makes note of an August 1996 conversation in which Clinton deplored the fact that only presidents who reach the "first tier" of history are those like FDR, who serve during war or other crises. Perhaps now we can understand his constant (but faulty) Milosevic-Hitler comparisons. Clinton believes he needs a large enemy on the world stage who would be a worthy adversary to demonstrate his own greatness.
To those of us who have been around a while, we are well aware that greatness cannot be sought outright. Greatness is earned, and it comes on its own terms as a side benefit or after-effect of achievement. Those who are great do not set out to be great!
As we view the great men and women of history, not one of them ever said to themselves: "I want to be great." To the contrary, they set out to be the best they could be. The high standard they set for themselves was what they would achieve, not how much credit or publicity they would end up getting for it. For those who put their eyes on the prize of adulation rather than accomplishment will find neither.
Those who achieved greatness just went about their lives, working their hearts out to fulfill their goals. They weren't obsessed about what people would think of them or how they would be remembered. They did not search for their legacy. They just went out and did what they had to do - with courage, honor and integrity! Greatness, like happiness, is found when you do, to your utmost ability and strength, what you were put on earth to do.
Let us all pray there will be a great awakening in our nation's capital.
Charlie Ker, Warsaw
Relay For Life
Editor, Times Union:I was reading the front page of Monday's paper on the event of Relay for Life. This is the first time I have participated in this event. I would like the organizers to know this is a great event to raise money. This is such a sad and wonderful experience at the same time. I was there to watch all the luminaries be lit and I was also there when the survivors walked their lap. The sad part was that out of all the luminaries that were lit for the people who this terrible disease had taken, or that are still fighting for their lives, there were only about a handful that was there that night that were survivors, that had beaten this and were there supporting everyone else. It was a wonderful time for people to get together that were not alone and knew what everyone else had gone through. Very caring, understanding people. As I watched the survivors walking their lap and the tears flowing down my face wishing my father, grandmother, uncle were in that procession but, God decided to call them home, away from the pain and suffering as we mortals feel on this earth and went to a peaceful, loving, painfree home of Jesus. I hope to help out more in this great event next year and hope that some day they do find a cure. It has been a rough seven months losing three family members to cancer. My grandmother just three weeks ago. This is a wonderful event to let people know there is hope, and the survivors are there to show it can be done. That God has made them stronger and closer spiritually. And through God all things are glorious. Thank You.
Bev Holloway
via e-mail
Flag Burning
Editor, Times-Union:With all the hysteria and emotion that seem to be running the country today, it was refreshing to read Dave Slone's commentary on flag burning. If we could get the same restrained and thought out response from the politicians we elect to run this country maybe people would not be angered to the point of burning the flag. We have a lot more serious problems in this country than flag burning. We have politicians swearing to uphold the Constitution when they take office and ignoring their oath completely. We have a president bombing foreign countries when the Constitution states very clearly that only Congress shall have the power to declare war. Giving the power to declare war to Congress only was not an afterthought. The framers of the Constitution know from history that when the power to declare war is in the hands of one person, a country will be continuously involved in unpopular conflicts. We have Congress passing laws to regulate firearms when the Constitution states very clearly that the "right to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed." We have doors being kicked down and property being seized without warrants or due process in the name of the "war on drugs." The Constitution does not permit this.
We have a cause in this country and it is much greater than flag burning. We have a serious responsibility as citizens of this country to make sure that any politician who votes for a law that violates the Constitution of the United States is ejected from public office and never allowed to become elected again.
Charles Carnes, Warsaw
[[In-content Ad]]
- Offensive Advertising - Clinton's Legacy - Relay For Life - Flag Burning
Offensive Advertising
Editor, Times-Union:I was amazed when I booted up my computer and clicked on my Internet icon and KC Online opening page contain a picture of a lady advertising a lap dance. A man at work was talking about such a dance in where once inside a strip club, the female dancer dances on the laps of her potential customers enticing them to further acts in the back room. Is this the kind of advertisements we want on our computer screens? Noooooooooo.
Stan Stutzman
via e-mail
Clinton's Legacy
Editor, Times-Union:For more than six years, we have witnessed the pathetic spectacle of a small man in search of stature. He has tried on others' reputations as if they were sports jackets. He has attempted to take the auras of great men as his own to cloak his own shortcomings, which are many.
Bill Clinton was going to be another FDR. Then he was going to be just like JFK. Then he was the new Truman. As each comparison was measured and found wanting, a new name was floated. The latest now is Winston Churchill. "I want to talk to you about Kosovo today but just remember this - it's about our values," he said. "What if someone had listened to Winston Churchill and stood up to Adolph Hitler earlier?" Ah, yes; Bill and Winston, voices crying in the wilderness.
Bill Clinton is unique in one respect. No other American president has ever devoted his energies to a public search for a "legacy" as he has. Bob Woodward's book "The Choice," which is about the 1996 Presidential election, and in it Bill Clinton is quoted complaining to his aides that he was held back by an accident of birth since history wasn't living up to his vast talents. "I feel like I was born out of my time," he said. "I should have been president during the second World War."
In his book, Dick Morris makes note of an August 1996 conversation in which Clinton deplored the fact that only presidents who reach the "first tier" of history are those like FDR, who serve during war or other crises. Perhaps now we can understand his constant (but faulty) Milosevic-Hitler comparisons. Clinton believes he needs a large enemy on the world stage who would be a worthy adversary to demonstrate his own greatness.
To those of us who have been around a while, we are well aware that greatness cannot be sought outright. Greatness is earned, and it comes on its own terms as a side benefit or after-effect of achievement. Those who are great do not set out to be great!
As we view the great men and women of history, not one of them ever said to themselves: "I want to be great." To the contrary, they set out to be the best they could be. The high standard they set for themselves was what they would achieve, not how much credit or publicity they would end up getting for it. For those who put their eyes on the prize of adulation rather than accomplishment will find neither.
Those who achieved greatness just went about their lives, working their hearts out to fulfill their goals. They weren't obsessed about what people would think of them or how they would be remembered. They did not search for their legacy. They just went out and did what they had to do - with courage, honor and integrity! Greatness, like happiness, is found when you do, to your utmost ability and strength, what you were put on earth to do.
Let us all pray there will be a great awakening in our nation's capital.
Charlie Ker, Warsaw
Relay For Life
Editor, Times Union:I was reading the front page of Monday's paper on the event of Relay for Life. This is the first time I have participated in this event. I would like the organizers to know this is a great event to raise money. This is such a sad and wonderful experience at the same time. I was there to watch all the luminaries be lit and I was also there when the survivors walked their lap. The sad part was that out of all the luminaries that were lit for the people who this terrible disease had taken, or that are still fighting for their lives, there were only about a handful that was there that night that were survivors, that had beaten this and were there supporting everyone else. It was a wonderful time for people to get together that were not alone and knew what everyone else had gone through. Very caring, understanding people. As I watched the survivors walking their lap and the tears flowing down my face wishing my father, grandmother, uncle were in that procession but, God decided to call them home, away from the pain and suffering as we mortals feel on this earth and went to a peaceful, loving, painfree home of Jesus. I hope to help out more in this great event next year and hope that some day they do find a cure. It has been a rough seven months losing three family members to cancer. My grandmother just three weeks ago. This is a wonderful event to let people know there is hope, and the survivors are there to show it can be done. That God has made them stronger and closer spiritually. And through God all things are glorious. Thank You.
Bev Holloway
via e-mail
Flag Burning
Editor, Times-Union:With all the hysteria and emotion that seem to be running the country today, it was refreshing to read Dave Slone's commentary on flag burning. If we could get the same restrained and thought out response from the politicians we elect to run this country maybe people would not be angered to the point of burning the flag. We have a lot more serious problems in this country than flag burning. We have politicians swearing to uphold the Constitution when they take office and ignoring their oath completely. We have a president bombing foreign countries when the Constitution states very clearly that only Congress shall have the power to declare war. Giving the power to declare war to Congress only was not an afterthought. The framers of the Constitution know from history that when the power to declare war is in the hands of one person, a country will be continuously involved in unpopular conflicts. We have Congress passing laws to regulate firearms when the Constitution states very clearly that the "right to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed." We have doors being kicked down and property being seized without warrants or due process in the name of the "war on drugs." The Constitution does not permit this.
We have a cause in this country and it is much greater than flag burning. We have a serious responsibility as citizens of this country to make sure that any politician who votes for a law that violates the Constitution of the United States is ejected from public office and never allowed to become elected again.
Charles Carnes, Warsaw
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