“Good, better, best,
Never let it rest,
Until you make good better,
And the better best.”
It’s a simple little rhyme I remember being taught in the fifth grade, 64 years ago. We had spelling tests and kept a list of vocabulary words we learned in our reading. Movies were occasional treats, color TV was a novelty, “cursive” was for the Big Kids, cars were for “grown ups,” football was for high school (mostly) and going to church was what families did Sundays, unless they were Jewish and then went Saturdays. “Rock ’N Roll” was controversial. Crime was headline material but mostly reported in newspapers and once (maybe twice) a day on TV by the big channels (ABC, CBS, NBC, Walter Cronkite). Needless to say, those days are over.
What also existed was people read more, books especially. That’s how people learned. It was basic to education.
The first time I read about human history, though (for example), I was shocked by how different the story was from the movies I’d seen. This kind of experience only continued as my education increased. And this experience continues today. But we have many (too many?) kinds of transmissions of news, information and educating for people today. And what reigns? Confusion.
But we still need to ask ourselves, “What the best thing to do, to believe, to try for, to listen to, etc., etc.” What is it to be, have, want “the Best” from all these choices? Isn’t this what all the debating going on boils down to?
Seen in this way, we can have reassurance that all these “choices” still get sorted out by our own human needs. To find what answers these needs shows the greatness of being in a country that is for “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness” for everyone. “Seek and ye shall find” (Luke 11:9) is great to know isn’t it? Sometimes it takes a while — but then again, sometimes it doesn’t. The point is, though, to seek.
There is hope. Papers like yours give me hope.
CHERYL LOVELY, Presque Isle, Maine
While Hal Crowther will never be mistaken for a leftist, his latest feature in the 8/15/20 TPP is so breathtaking in its utterly unsubstantiated assumptions that it cannot escape comment.
The first notable logical fallacy is that prison abolitionists present a choice between an “orderly” society (hello, Nixon and Reagan) and serial killers set free to prey upon the public. There is in fact nuance in abolition, including community-based programs, halfway houses, home monitoring and similar measures – versus Crowther’s “shock the masses” example of leaving the Golden State Killer to roam at large.
Next, he claims that “we don’t know” whether Derek Chauvin is a racist. Perhaps not – yet we DO know that George Floyd was not the first person he shot OR killed in the line of duty; further, Chauvin had 17 previous complaints, only one of which resulted in discipline. If Hal Crowther can assume (without challenge) that prison abolitionists would free the Golden State Killer, I will safely assume that Chauvin is a racist.
Next, he pities, the poor, poor, police with their “impossible” jobs. Police departments nationwide are so well insulated from any consequences of their aggression that their unions more closely resemble protection rackets than a traditional union. Perhaps there are “reckless” recruits, he says – maybe like the White Supremacists who have been infiltrating police departments since the 1990’s, according to the FBI? And oh! Hike up your skirts in light of the dangers our poor snowflakes in law enforcement face from domestic abusers and the like. (As many a meme that circulated post-Floyd murder noted, nurses face drunk, violent, belligerent people daily and generally manage not to kill them). In fact, policing ISN’T the most dangerous “profession” in America – in fact, it doesn’t even crack the top ten, though farmers, roofers and loggers do.
Alas, Crowther continues. In the past 18 MONTHS, 453 police officers have been shot (notably, NOT killed) in the line of duty. How many civilians have been KILLED in just the past YEAR? As of August 8, 2020, that number is 982.
To Crowther, those of us who lack sympathy for the average policeman are “damn fools.” I will bear that aspersion proudly, though I do not fall within any of the three groups Crowther says wish to abolish the police – Angela Davies, armed vigilantes, and professional criminals.
The final icing on the cake is his conclusion that “cops’ and kids’ lives matter too.” So much has been written on this false equivalency that I have nothing to add; I simply note what many have already said: if Black Lives truly mattered, there would be no need for the BLM movement in this country.
KIM HUNTER, St. Paul, Minn.
We do a better background check when buying a car then choosing a president. When Dr. Peter Navarro, White House trade adviser, said, “He’s the hardest-working president in history. He works 24/7,” referring to Don the Con. We have to agree.
Those little thumbs must be worn to the bone, tweeting his bird brain thoughts, ideas and probabilities, while changing facts, figures and spelling. The poor fellow must be teed off, having to spend so much time thinking up new disasters to take our minds off the old and present ones.
The ashes of previous calamities smolder on, while new volcanic eruptions spew forth daily. The revolving door of outs and ins has become a runaway merry-go-round.
Sometimes we laugh until we cry, but we don’t cry alone.
FLORA ORMSBY SMITH, Marblehead, Mass.
I’ve been the Security Director for a large regional medical center for over a quarter century and I’ve been in the safety – security – crime prevention profession for over 44 years. I feel compelled to sound the alarm on America’s spiraling gun slaughter. Consider these facts:
• There are now more than 393 million guns in civilian hands in the United States.
• This amounts to 120 guns for every 100 citizens. Contrast this with 4.6 guns per 100 citizens in England and 0.3 per hundred citizens in Japan.
• Consider children – gun worshiping America is now a slaughterhouse for children. A child now dies from gunfire every two and a half hours. This is roughly 10 children a day and does not consider those maimed, crippled, ruined for life by gunfire. Since 1963, guns have killed more than 186,000 children. This is four times as much as soldiers in military actions – wars within the same time frame. In the home of the brave a child is 15 time more likely to be killed by gunfire than any other developed nation.
• Since January 1, 2019, at least 453 police officers have been shot in the line of duty. This is essentially one a day.
If all of this isn’t horrifying enough, gun sales in the US saw new records from March to June, with gun sales eclipsing eight million. Gun permit applications have risen as much as 500% in regions nationwide and all of this is occurring in a cauldron of hate, polarization, and race baiting that is nurtured and cultivated by our current White House occupant, the Republican Party and a renegade NRA that has morphed and devolved into an angry, strident white nationalist entity. Unless reasoned authentic gun control measures are levied and enforced the national shooting gallery that is the United States will reach unprecedented and unbelievable levels of violence.
What is needed is sustained dedicated citizen involvement to meet our enduring domestic gun slaughter head on. Citizens armed with reason, common sense and regard, respect for human life can defeat the evil, entrenched forces known as the US gun lobby.
JIM SAWYER, Edmonds, Wash.
In Ted Rall’s column, “Our Politics Need a Culture of Atonement” [8/15/20 TPP], he states “Being Republican means never having to say you’re sorry.” Well, he’s right, but doesn’t go near enough or far enough. He mentions slave trade and Middle East interventionism. But we are complicit in much worse, nearer to home. And I am talking about intervention in the Americas.
There is a long list of these interventions, not the least of these are the illegal war against the contrast in Nicaragua under Reagan and the support of coups right now in Venezuela. We stomped on democracy in Haiti. We support right-wing governments in Central America that suppress their population.
As I write, we make it extremely difficult for refugees from Central America to claim, in a reasonable time frame, refugee status in the US.
Many of us were taught as children, “If you make a mess, you have to clean it up.” As Americans, we have made messes, especially in the Americas …
It is my understanding that the immigrants are no more likely to be killers and rapists than the current population of the US. And if you want to talk about violence, we seem to have plenty of that with the current population.
It is time to not only say that we are sorry, but also to act on that apology and bring many more immigrants from Central America in who are looking for safety and opportunity and do it more quickly. Of course, this will mean that since they are here legally, it will mean that they will have to be paid normal wages.
BARRIE EICHHORN, West Chester, Pa.
In her article, “Don a mask, Mr. Trump ...” [8/15/20 TPP], Amy Goodman writes that “Major Walter Reed was an Army surgeon credited with proving in 1900 that mosquitoes transmit yellow fever...”
There it is again! It never fails! The writers of American history textbooks and articles routinely give all of the credit for the eradication of yellow fever solely to the American physician Walter Reed.
Why, I wonder, don’t they tell the whole story? In truth, it was the Cuban physician Carlos Finlay who collaborated in that effort with Walter Reed — and should be given equal praise for his service to medical science.
In fact, it was Finlay who theorized that yellow fever was spread by insects, rather than by bedding and other articles — which up until then was the prevailing belief among doctors. And he was right.
The Nobel Prize committee often rewards two scientists for their joint collaboration for a breakthrough in their discipline. In the same manner, all American historians who write about such notable individuals should also give credit where credit is due. After all, others besides Americans have accomplished great deeds.
DAVID QUINTERO, Monrovia, Calif.
You did very well Aug. 4, Speaker Pelosi, in holding your ground in indirectly contradicting evermore rightwing-sycophant Judy Woodruff, saying “with all due respect …” in her flailing efforts to shield the inhumane suffering-promoting top Republicans. …
I have not been favorably impressed, up to today, with your demonstration of resistance to political/economic wickedness. You should never have given assent to the CARES Act in March, or the $740 billion military dollars in July, without hard attachment to the House’s May 14 HEROES assurances. But now: Yield Not An Inch and rescue afflicted America.
STEPHEN WOHL, New York, N.Y.
From The Progressive Populist, September 15, 2020
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