LETTERS: Wednesday
Put promise in writing
I noticed Scott McInnis continues to assert that Senator Penry’s vote on Pinon Canyon “was an insult to the Pentagon” (The Gazette, Sept. 22). Actually, the Congressman’s assertion ignores history. While proud of our service, military veterans can string off a list of broken promises by the military, starting with a recruiter’s promise of “should you stay in for 20 years you and and your family will have free health care the rest of your life”.
One also only need look at the previous expansion, where the Army initially promised that eminent domain would not be used, only to reverse that decision later. If the Army is really serious about its promise this time, put it in writing through federal legislation. The vote by Senator Penry was a vote for the rights of property owners who do not want to see their land condemned.
Beware of politicians who tout “experience” but appear short on substance; after all, didn’t John McCain have a lot of “experience”?
Buddy Gilmore
Colorado Springs
Racism charges prejudiced
Charges of racially motivated dissent have inundated Americans in the media as of late. Congressman Joe Wilson’s untimely outburst during President Obama’s health care speech seems to the catalyst for this smoldering ember.
“Prejudice is an adverse judgment formed beforehand without knowledge or examination.”
To say congressman Wilson’s spontaneity is racially based, is prejudice in itself. For example, if before President Obama’s speech, Wilson had stated “ I don’t believe anything President Obama says because he is black”, then the “you lie” statement would clearly be racially motivated. Since Joe Wilson’s past carries no evidence of racism, denigration of his character along these lines is circumstantial and prejudiced.
Which brings us to the larger issue. Does disagreement with another’s views, who is of a different race, make you a racist? I frequently collaborate with a variety of humanity, and occasionally, I disagree with an individual’s perspective. Does that make me a racist?
Some folks in the public eye would like you and me to believe this. Former President Jimmy Carter and comedian Bill Cosby have trumped in with the race card. These harbingers of ill will have fallen victim to their own preconceived supposition. If racial prejudice is as rampant as described, one wonders how Mr. Obama became president.
The race game being played is a game of misdirection. The majority of Americans, of all cultures, will judge Mr. Obama on the content of his character, not his color. On the prudence of his actions, without prejudice.
James Sokol
Colorado Springs
Threat of city cuts insulting
We have all been down this road before. The city is crying wolf about the draconian cuts which will be necessary if the taxpayers do not agree to rape their fellow property-owning citizens with a tripling of property taxes. The local weekly and our esteemed daily newspaper took the step of joining editorial pages in a move to convince taxpayers of the dire reality of the situation. The original $20-plus million dollar shortfall number was back (which includes a raise for city employees, previously characterized as a “non-starter”). The more realistic actual shortfall number (previously reported in The Gazette) has been forgotten, along with perfectly reasonable solution proposals such as an across-the-board cut in pay.
Our new city manager (who for her own part was not above attempting to abscond on an $8,000 tax bill from her previous fair city) recommended against reasonable pay cuts for no good economic reason. This fact was reported by The Gazette, along with the recommendation’s shamelessly inadequate “justification” which cited no economic reality at all, and instead mentioned amorphous employee “morale” issues.
By all means, let us protect city employee morale with a huge jump in property tax, while the long-suffering taxpayers face job losses and pay cuts and benefit starvation. This city manager’s report is impossible to characterize as other than a slap in the face and an insult to the sensibilities of taxpayers. Apparently our city fathers have made the cynical calculation that taxpayers are not only ripe for another pocket-picking, but also so stupid that they can be treated with casual contempt while this is being done.
And of course, let us ignore reports that already our sales tax revenues are recovering: “City official pleasantly surprised,” said a recent headline. A bit of extrapolation and statistical work might well show that by the time taxpayers are bamboozled and browbeaten into coming across with a truly huge windfall for our oh-so trustworthy city government, we will be well on our way to no longer needing it.
David Carew
Colorado Springs
Glimpse into the future?
I am an internal medicine doctor practicing in Colorado Springs for nearly 15 years. Recently my book club decided to read “Atlas Shrugged”. I am only on page 683 out of 1068 and need to finish it in 4 days. I was compelled to take time away from my task after reading a paragraph in Part 3, Chapter 1, titled “Atlantis” that quoted Dr. Hendricks.
This book was published in 1957 yet I felt he was one of my modern day colleagues, and I quote:
“I quit when medicine was placed under State control, some years ago,” said Dr. Hendricks. “Do you know what it takes to perform a brain operation? Do you know the kind of skill it demands, and the years of passionate, merciless, excruciating devotion that go to acquire that skill? That was what I would not place at the disposal of men whose sole qualification to rule me was their capacity to spout the fraudulent generalities that got them elected to the privilege of enforcing their wishes at the point of a gun. I would not let them dictate the purpose for which my years of study had been spent, or the conditions of my work, or my choice of patients, or the amount of my reward. I observed that in all the discussions that preceded the enslavement of medicine, men discussed everything — except the desires of the doctors. Men considered only the ‘welfare’ of the patients, with no thought for those who were to provide it. That a doctor should have any right, desire or choice in the matter was regarded as irrelevant selfishness; his is not to choose, they said, only ‘to serve.’ That a man who’s willing to work under compulsion is too dangerous a brute to entrust with a job in the stockyards never occurred to those who proposed to help the sick by making life impossible for the healthy. I have often wondered at the smugness with which people assert their right to enslave me, to control my work, to force my will, to violate my conscience, to stifle my mind — yet what is it that they expect to depend on, when they lie on an operating table under my hands?”
I certainly hope Ayn Rand was not in possession of a crystal ball. If so, where’s my ticket to Atlantis?
Anita Kraus Lane, M.D.
Colorado Springs
