Voting is a chance to restore balance
To the editor:
Tom Brokaw coined the phrase "The Greatest Generation" in reference to those in their 80s and 90s today who adhered to some basic principles of life that I've adopted. They endured the Great Depression and World War II and forged timeless perspectives of life.
This generation led a life that was communal, they relied on one another. They were proud in being self sufficient. They worked hard and were frugal. They believed in the promise of equal opportunity for all. They sacrificed for others and held dear to the principal that through selfless commitment to others they would create a better world.
When I go to the polls this fall I will vote out every politician that has destroyed these principals. Gov. Deval Patrick will be the first on my "delete" list. Though deferred for now, President Obama will have his due, and in between, this fall a few other career pols in the Merrimack Valley. I hope there will be enough replacements. In 1967, I came to this country at age 7 with parents who were younger than the "Greatest Generation" but had endured their own hardships as immigrants from Southern Italy which had its own Depression. They carried with them the same principles of their parent's generation: communal living, reliance on each other, self-sufficiency, hard work and frugality. Government was not a source of comfort. I distinctly remember how different life was in 1967 compared to today. Perhaps it was exclusive to the working class community I grew up. But I suspect the aforementioned values were widely accepted.
Today we live in a world where many people believe in entitlements from government. The work ethic is a value practiced by a minority of the population. The legal community has mustered a massive network to protect those who feel violated for being offended. Some public school systems are under siege by parents who feel their children can do no wrong. Criminal "illegals" are vested with rights of citizens. Our health care system is collapsing under the weight of abuse. Criminality, greed and lack of ethics runs rampant in corporate America.
Young people today are largely introspective, and devoid of a sense of community. The single, exception is a high concentration of young people in our military who have a more "worldly" view. They are selfless, heroic, and rooted in self-reliance and work. I worry about my children. I don't like the world they are growing up in. Every generation has lamented the replacement of their values for new ones, but I strongly sense that this time around we really are in a dangerous situation.
We are on a track to transform our great nation into a lesser one. We will have millions dependent on government for security and others who will enjoy unearned economic comforts. A minority of the population will be forced by policy and re-distributive taxation to support the welfare of many who otherwise could help themselves.
Radical liberalism has become the scourge of our republic which is creating these conditions. Equality, fairness and opportunity are core values of the American dream. Voting offers an opportunity to achieve a balance by improving the rights and privileges of those who deliver the dream.
Joe D'Amore
Groveland
Iran poses a nuclear threat
To the editor:
The possibility of a nuclear Iran in the near future is undeniable. Iran's Nuclear Research Program, restarted in 2006, has or soon will, produce enriched uranium of bomb grade quality. Secretary of Defense Robert Gates said in June, at a meeting of NATO defense ministers, that most intelligence estimates predict Iran is one to three years away from building nuclear weapons.
In the latest defiance of international efforts to curb their nuclear ambitions Iran announced that it will build 10 uranium enriching sites inside mountain strongholds, starting next March.
President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is a savvy opportunist. With no serious threats along its borders, a gun-shy Obama administration and only UN sanctions to step around, the time is right for their quest to become a nuclear power.
A nuclear Iran would be a disaster for that region of the world. America's standing in the Middle East would be weakened. It could start a nuclear arms race in the region. It would put in jeopardy the whole Non-Proliferation Treaty. Smaller Arab countries, lacking the assurance that the United States is willing to confront Iran, could partner with Iran, possibly cutting oil production and raise prices.
No one has a higher stake in the outcome than Israel. Ahmadinejad, a Messianic revolutionary, speaking for the Iranian government denies the historical truth of the Holocaust and considers Israel as an illegal occupier of Palestinian land that should be "wiped off the map." In other words, annihilated. This type of outrageous talk goes back at least to the biblical days of Queen Esther.
A highly symbolic photograph, taken in 2003, is a common sight at the Israeli Defense Ministry in Tel Aviv. The picture shows three Israeli Air Force F-15s in a flyby over Auschwitz, Poland. Auschwitz is a reminder of World War II when the Jewish people had no power to stop Hitler. Six million people were slaughtered. Today the very existence of the 6 million Jewish people living in Israel has been threatened by Iran.
But Iran may have picked the wrong fight. Modern Israel has the ability to defend itself. In 1981, Israeli warplanes bombed an Iraqi nuclear site which forever ended Saddam Hussein's nuclear ambitions and three years ago, Israel destroyed a North Korean built reactor in Syria.
All the choices for Israel are bad. John McCain said the only thing worse than bombing Iran is for Iran to get the bomb. President Obama has said a number of times a nuclear Iran is "unacceptable." There are no guarantees, but the best chance to keep Iran from developing nuclear bombs is that "all options must be on the table" or we could see a nuclear Iran during Obama's watch.
David Rousseau
Haverhill
Ground Zero mosque is a bad idea
To the editor:
Would it offend to build a Shinto shrine above the USS Arizona; or erect a statue of Erwin Rommel at Omaha Beach; or construct an Axis Powers museum at Arlington? Of course.
It is not a question of jingoism or hatred. No one would seriously argue that Japan, Germany and Italy are not friends of the United States. Nor is it a question of religious freedom.
Rather, it is a matter of basic human dignity, of respect for thousands of honored dead and the consecrated ground where they fell, and perhaps recognition of the sensibilities and consequences of a proud nation attacked while at peace.
Andrew P. Botti
Andover
