Letters

Just like a Republican website

Posted 8/21/14

To the Editor:

When I opened today’s editorial page in the Beacon, I thought I was looking at a print edition of the Daily Caller, the Republican website noted for inflammatory and ludicrous …

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Letters

Just like a Republican website

Posted

To the Editor:

When I opened today’s editorial page in the Beacon, I thought I was looking at a print edition of the Daily Caller, the Republican website noted for inflammatory and ludicrous reporting. The first letter to the editor tried to rehabilitate Richard Nixon. The second predicted the coming destruction of our civilization if Democrats remain in the presidency. And the third effusively berated me for my comments about George the Pretender.

No point attempting to refute the first’s Nixon hype. He resigned from office, the only president to suffer that indignity, and that says it all.

In the second letter, Richard Walsh goes off on one of his patented tirades about how abandoning religion will end society as we know it. He, of course, is just one of thousands who have for centuries predicted the same sad outcome, which has yet to come to fruition. Mr. Walsh mentions that one of his teachers told him that George Washington warned that turning from God would spell ruin to the country. I’ve looked in several compilations of Washington’s statements and cannot find this quote.

Given that, Washington said:

“The government of the United States is not, in any sense, founded on the Christian religion.”

“Religious controversies are always productive of more acrimony and irreconcilable hatreds than those which spring from any other cause.”

“Of all the animosities which have existed among mankind, those which are caused by a difference of sentiments in religion appear to be the most inveterate and distressing, and ought most to be deprecated.” 

We can discount his teacher’s portrayal. The religious right always seeks to ascribe godly motivations to the Founding Fathers where none existed. The fact that the Fathers included a prohibition on the establishment of religion in the Constitution should make that self-evident.

 The third letter, since it directly related to me, requires some commentary. Mr. Nadeau considers my statement that George W. “allowed terrorists to murder thousands of innocent people on 9/11” mean-spirited and reprehensible. Talk about misquoting and mischaracterization.

 What I actually said was GWB “allowed terrorists to level two iconic New York skyscrapers.” That’s a lot different than what he quoted. If you are going to blame the current president for the slightest mistake, then surely GWB, who as I recall was president at the time, is responsible for neglecting to stop that attack.

After all, he ignored the August 3, 2001 intelligence report about Bin Laden preparing such an operation. It wasn’t like there was one lone bomber trying to bring down a plane with a shoe bomb. It was 19 men, a conspiracy of some magnitude, who went undetected and ignored. The fact that I blame GWB for inaction in no way makes me feel any less sorrowful for the deaths of those in the planes and the towers, and my comment cannot in any way be directed at the victims. What I find “mean-spirited and reprehensible” is how Bush supporters can justify and condone his every action, whether it was lying about atomic weapons in Iraq, the torture of prisoners, his failure with Katrina, his outing of Valerie Plame, Abu Grhaib, Gitmo, firing U.S. attorneys, starting wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, declaring “mission accomplished” 10 years early, the Harriet Myers debacle, the Walter Reid Hospital horror, failed to adequately arm troops, vetoed the veterans bill, and let’s not forget almost collapsing the nation’s economy.

There’s more, but I think we’ll run out of paper.

Barry Nordin

Warwick

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  • jfraser

    Well said, Barry, well said.

    Sunday, August 24, 2014 Report this