Today is Giving Tuesday, a day set aside to encourage generosity during the holiday season: Please drop toys for underprivileged tots in collection boxes. Dollar bills in Salvation Army buckets. Cans of carrots and peas in food pantry bins. Checks in mailboxes to support your favorite charities.
And don’t forget Thoughts and Prayers for victims of gun violence and those who lost everything in fires and floods. Above all, remember to send a check to the politicians who make sure your own interests are advanced (come hellfire or high water).
We heap praise and blessings on the heads of those who donate large sums of money to alleviate the suffering of the unfortunate victims of greed. The rest of us, through our well-meaning donations, participate unwittingly in this corrupt system.
In the tradition of Andrew Carnegie, the wealthy assuage their consciences by giving away some of what they stole from the rest of us; they drop a crumb here, maybe a whole loaf there, with a total disconnect between how the money was made and the conditions they are attempting to alleviate. They are not interested in challenging the policies that enabled the huge disparities in the first place. Carnegie has libraries, schools, and museums named after him. The Walton family makes sure the public knows about the community projects they underwrite.
It is time for the multinational corporations and their allies to be held accountable for the life-threatening problems they are creating. I am not speaking against capitalism; I am speaking about capitalism run amok in which maximized profits take precedence over the common good. We need deep system reform to reverse the consolidation of wealth and power that is ruining our country.
I hope compassionate generosity will remain a vibrant aspect of our shared humanity. At the same time, I fear that the Gilded Age mentality is alive and well in the United States of America.
Barbara Richardson, Bensalem, Pa.
It’s Christmas time again. Scrooge became enlightened and went out and bought stuff for people. He saw, via ghosts, the the way he was living was not good for himself and resolved to reverse that before it was too late.
Capitalism has benefitted by recognizing the riches to be gained by embracing a holiday like Christmas. It makes people feel good so they spend more. “Giving to others” also profits the giver(s), the line goes. Feasting and festivities and “good cheer’ abound. It’s a distraction from “the Usual.”
An interruption — in a good way. And that’s the whole point. It shows how religious beliefs influence a whole culture. And when something is determined to be “good,” people want it to spread and continue for as long as possible. We’re celebrating a birth that happened 2,000 years ago! It should make people wonder why and to want to learn more about this person! Good idea. There’s a whole book about Him, and many more written because of that book. Celebrate literacy and practice it. It’s all good, this book, Genesis to Revelation. For everyone. Merry Christmas! And thanks for the newspapers too — like yours.
Cheryl Lovely, Presque Isle, Maine
I am concerned that there are, or soon will be, many voters who supported Democratic candidates in the recent midterm election and who now may have unrealistically high expectations now that Democrats will have the majority in the House in January. The Democratic wins in the House are undoubtedly critical as a back-stop against any further efforts to weaken the Affordable Care Act or do further damage with an additional tax scam like last December’s. Obviously, however, Republicans still have control of the Senate, Trump is still in the White House, and Gorsuch and Kavanaugh are now on the Supreme Court. With all that, it is highly unlikely, in my view, that any substantial progress will be made in the next two years. The efforts that Trump and the current Congress have already put in motion to weaken the ACA will not stop just because Democrats take the House in January. Last December’s tax scam will not go away any time soon either.
It is critical that voters not develop unrealistic expectations of the coming two years, at the risk of becoming apathetic or jaded and fail to show up in 2020 to build upon the important gains from this mid-term. My analogy to this mid-term is to liken it to the morning after D-Day in World War II: Thankfully, we now have troops on the beaches, so to speak, but we’re a long way from liberating the country. We all need to stay engaged and active through the 2020 election cycle.
Martin J. Murphy, Boulder, Colo.
Joel D. Joseph’s article, “Is the World Trade Organization Unfair to the United States?” [11/15/18 TPP] asks too specific of a question. The organization is supposed to guarantee free trade, where no country is setting tariffs to protect their internal industry. The question should be Is Any Country Setting Up Tariffs to Protect Home Industry? The WTO is way over-stepping that role in their current incarnation.
The consumer’s will is completely ignored. The old adage “Let the buyer beware” seems to be the watchword. The consumers desire is completely overlooked. As a consumer, I feel I have the right to know how my food is acquired, what it contains, where it is manufactured, etc. I specify what I would like and whomever can provide it, is fine with me. But I want to know that it is what I want, specifically. Whether it is made with slave or prison labor, I may have to do research, but the actual content ought to be what I specify. And governments have the right, no, the duty, to make laws to regulate that.
The WTO ought to be more open, but their role should be constrained and this suing governments with no visibility or recourse is just wrong.
Barrie Eichhorn, West Chester, Pa.
Re: “Mars and Other Fantasies” by John Buell [12/1 TPP], it has taken only a short time, relatively speaking, for humankind to foul its nest. And looking at what we’ve already done to this planet, we can be sure that once we establish colonies on Mars, it won’t take long to leave a trail of filth and destruction on that planet also.
How fortunate that Mars has no life that resembles humans or animals. Remember the Tasmanians? Remember the Dodo bird? Yes, human and bird species both exterminated by man.
But that’s not all: Soon after setting foot on the red planet, we’ll be followed by McDonalds, Taco Bells, KFCs, and myriads of pizza eateries, all looking for a spot to further blight the landscape.
Another thought: Will Mars colonists be safe from gun violence? Of course not! Those from America will be sure to pack their beloved guns into their luggage … along with a copy of the Second Amendment.
Thus, even if science were to make it affordable for we the people to change our domicile to Mars, we’ll undoubtedly say, “thanks, but no thanks.”
David Quintero, Monrovia, Calif.
President George W. Bush and his Cabinet launched wars in Afghanistan and in Iraq in which we have lost thousands of US troops and billions of dollars (figures of losses in Afghanistan and Iraq not available) and the war still goes on.
Such wars have given “birth” to Talibans in Afghan-istan and ISIS in Iraq and we have been left with victims suffering from PTSD. They find it very difficult to adjust and with a result Societies are facing with multiple divorces, suicides and even killings (synagogue in Pittsburg). Maybe President Bush did not realize that this is one of the effects of wars and he should be blamed. IT IS NOT SO EASY TO WAGE WARS WITHOUT CONSEQUENCES.
G.M. Chandu, Flushing, N.Y.
I was intrigued by Mark Perry’s article in the 12/1 issue of Politico magazine, titled, “Beto has a path to the presidency: Lincoln’s.”
We need to win the Democratic Trump voters back, especially in Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania. If Beto were to do rallies to “meet and greet” those voters in the places where Trump had his rallies, we could get a sense of how effective his possible candidacy would be.
One thesis of Perry’s article is that by losing the Illinois Senate race to Stephen Douglas [in 1858, a race that was decided in the state legislature], Lincoln was free to work towards the presidency. Beto’s narrow loss to Cruz frees him to see if he has the relationship to those disgruntled Democrats to bring them back.
John Middleton, Chicago, Ill.
“Happiness — to some elation — is to others mere stagnation.” — Amy Lowellnnnnnnnnnnnnnn
One gets the queasy sensation that President Trump, despite enormous wealth and power, is a profoundly unhappy man. Say he’s a super-egotist if you will — assert his administration is Kafkaesque if you must — the fellow is almost certainly troubled and embroiled in emotional stress.
Donald could have basked in luxury with his beautiful wife. Indeed, like King Solomon, he could have savored all the splendor this world has to enjoy. But some instinctive impulse prodded him to gain the Oval Office against all odds or reason. His scowl betrays his more candid feeling than does his self-satisfied simper.
Donald could have lived as a hedonist, had he chosen to do so. Now he treads a thorny path, self-tormented, deserving perhaps pathos more than scorn.
William Dauenhauer, Willowick, Ohio
In his otherwise fine article, “Trump Has Revolutionized Politics” [11/1/18 TPP], Ted Rall states: “Time was, a President would withdraw a nominee to the Supreme Court if the minority party wasn’t likely to support him or her, as Reagan did with the controversially far-right Robert Bork.” Actually, Reagan never withdrew the nomination of Bork, and the Senate voted him down on Oct. 23, 1987. The vote was 58-42, with six Republican senators voting against him and two Democrats voting for him.
Stephen E. Appell, Brooklyn, N.Y.
From The Progressive Populist, January 1-15, 2019
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