Speaking To Americans

Like Adults

To the Editor:

It is difficult to read letters, such as “Obama Disasters” (Letter Hive, April 24), and to not respond. It is full of epithets popularized by FOX News devotees, not to mention full of inaccuracies, full of innuendo and, well, full of too many things to mention….

The term “War on Terror” — a catchphrase used by the previous administration — is meant to inspire fear, a technique to keep most Americans remain frightened and dependent on the government for protection. Perhaps it’s time to get rid of such slogans as “The War on Drugs” and “The War on Poverty” (neither has worked since both are out of control).

A close friend recently described Obama’s appeal: “This president speaks to the American people like we are adults, capable of understanding and participating in issues of the day.” I agree — and I appreciate the opportunity to decide for myself what I should be afraid of and what I should believe based on facts and objectivity, rather than having to wade through misleading expressions used, intentionally, out of context, such as: the Obama administration referred to “returning war veterans and conservative individuals” as “potential terrorists.” Or that “Communist tyrants Chavez, Ortega, and the Castro brothers are Obama’s buddies.”

As the leader of the free world, Obama is trying to establish a workable, mutually beneficial relationship with our closest neighbors. He is also seeking to repair the tarnished reputation of our country in the eyes of the rest of the world. Unlike his predecessor, this President sees America as part of a global community.

The preceding letter writer refers to America’s newly elected President and members of his administration as “him and his cohorts” — a term that implies a gang or criminal element.

He alleges Obama to be “our socialist President” and tries to revive a negative association between Obama and the reverend Jeremiah Wright, as if Wright is Obama’s philosophical guru, current mentor, or policy advisor.

Furthermore, to suggest that Obama will be responsible for escalating gasoline costs — after the debacle of $5 a gallon prices during the not-too-distant destructive eight-year reign of Bush/Cheney — is a stretch at best.

 Global Warming (giving a website as support doesn’t make its allegations true). “There is no debate among scientists about the basic facts of global warming.” The US National Academy of Sciences, which in 2005 the White House called “the gold standard of objective scientific assessment,” issued a joint statement with ten other National Academies of Science saying, “The scientific understanding of climate change is now sufficiently clear to justify nations taking prompt action.” (Think: Kyoto, Al Gore, An Inconvenient Truth, Nobel Prize).

I, for one, don’t long for the “good ol’ days” of secret meetings with heads of oil corporations to determine our energy policy; of falsifying documents to justify an illegal war; of infringement of human rights and civil liberties in the name of “national security.”

Affordable health care for all? (You had me at “affordable….”)

Michael Luzzi

Boggs Hill Road, Newtown                                             April 29, 2009