Not The Same
July 28, 2016 at 4:25 p.m.
By -
I was flattered to read reprinted excerpts of my 2004 letters to the editor in Saturday's News Views. Not only did Mr. Gerard choose two of my letters, he bestowed the high praise of "awesome" on one of them. As I face the winter as one of more than 10 million unemployed, a winter in which heat has become a luxury, can I collect a royalty check?
Mr. Gerard was apparently trying to justify the open hostility to President-Elect Obama by him and many of his readers by comparing similar sentiments expressed by me and a select few following the re-election of 43.
While I'm sure Mr. Gerard and the majority of his readers view these opposing comments as an apples-to-apples comparison, might I point out that they are omitting one important component: We had already been subjected to four years of 43. President-Elect Obama has yet to serve one day.
After the 2000 election, many of us questioned the legitimacy of 43's presidency resulting in feelings of ill will. However, after 9/11, 43 had the support of nearly 80 percent of Americans.
The following is but an iota of Neocon Dogma that has created so much anguish and chest pains for those of us on the left during the first four years of 43.
Let's first look at the environment.
The first four years saw 43 thumb his nose at the Kyoto Treaty. The Clear Skies Act allowed for an additional 42 tons of industrial poison to be released into the air. New standards for arsenic in drinking water were abolished and scientific proof of global warming was met with derision and denial.
Two thousand and one brought us 9/11 and the sage advice by 43 to just go shopping, and the admonition that buying illegal drugs aids the terrorists. The attacks of 9/11 gave birth to the USA Patriot Act, which gave the government access to financial and medical records, credit card bills, bookstore purchases and library records along with other private information.
On the economic front we saw the disappearance of 2.2 million jobs by 2003. We also saw the slowest wage growth in 40 years for middle- and low-income workers. In 2004 alone, 1.6 million filed for bankruptcy, 1.4 million were added to poverty rolls and an additional 2 million were without health insurance.
In 2003 we saw the invasion of Iraq to get rid of weapons of mass destruction - which we're still looking for and in turn destroyed U.S. credibility. Less than two months later we were treated to the garish spectacle of the mission accomplished speech. Five years later the war grinds on.
To list all of the outrages committed in the first four years by 43, his administration and his corporate gangster friends would require reams of paper and the destruction of a small forest.
I must admit to a warm, fuzzy feeling that 43 will leave office a disgraced failure with the lowest approval ratings ever, and may go down in history as the man that dismantled the unfettered capitalism he championed for eight years.
During the recent campaign, Republicans continually called for free trade, tax cuts and deregulation as tools for job creation. After eight years of free trade, tax cuts and deregulation, why the hell aren't we neck deep in jobs?
Janet Collins
Etna Green[[In-content Ad]]
I was flattered to read reprinted excerpts of my 2004 letters to the editor in Saturday's News Views. Not only did Mr. Gerard choose two of my letters, he bestowed the high praise of "awesome" on one of them. As I face the winter as one of more than 10 million unemployed, a winter in which heat has become a luxury, can I collect a royalty check?
Mr. Gerard was apparently trying to justify the open hostility to President-Elect Obama by him and many of his readers by comparing similar sentiments expressed by me and a select few following the re-election of 43.
While I'm sure Mr. Gerard and the majority of his readers view these opposing comments as an apples-to-apples comparison, might I point out that they are omitting one important component: We had already been subjected to four years of 43. President-Elect Obama has yet to serve one day.
After the 2000 election, many of us questioned the legitimacy of 43's presidency resulting in feelings of ill will. However, after 9/11, 43 had the support of nearly 80 percent of Americans.
The following is but an iota of Neocon Dogma that has created so much anguish and chest pains for those of us on the left during the first four years of 43.
Let's first look at the environment.
The first four years saw 43 thumb his nose at the Kyoto Treaty. The Clear Skies Act allowed for an additional 42 tons of industrial poison to be released into the air. New standards for arsenic in drinking water were abolished and scientific proof of global warming was met with derision and denial.
Two thousand and one brought us 9/11 and the sage advice by 43 to just go shopping, and the admonition that buying illegal drugs aids the terrorists. The attacks of 9/11 gave birth to the USA Patriot Act, which gave the government access to financial and medical records, credit card bills, bookstore purchases and library records along with other private information.
On the economic front we saw the disappearance of 2.2 million jobs by 2003. We also saw the slowest wage growth in 40 years for middle- and low-income workers. In 2004 alone, 1.6 million filed for bankruptcy, 1.4 million were added to poverty rolls and an additional 2 million were without health insurance.
In 2003 we saw the invasion of Iraq to get rid of weapons of mass destruction - which we're still looking for and in turn destroyed U.S. credibility. Less than two months later we were treated to the garish spectacle of the mission accomplished speech. Five years later the war grinds on.
To list all of the outrages committed in the first four years by 43, his administration and his corporate gangster friends would require reams of paper and the destruction of a small forest.
I must admit to a warm, fuzzy feeling that 43 will leave office a disgraced failure with the lowest approval ratings ever, and may go down in history as the man that dismantled the unfettered capitalism he championed for eight years.
During the recent campaign, Republicans continually called for free trade, tax cuts and deregulation as tools for job creation. After eight years of free trade, tax cuts and deregulation, why the hell aren't we neck deep in jobs?
Janet Collins
Etna Green[[In-content Ad]]
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