PublishaLetter Blog

November elections are not far off. The letters to the editors submitted through Publishaletter are heating up with ideological debates from the right and the left. The tax and the so called “redistribution of wealth”issues are particularly volatile.

Some of the “Right” leaning letters are dead set against tax increase - in fact there should be tax reduction they demand. Here are some excerpts from a recent letter: Roughly 42 percent of people living in the U.S. pay no federal income tax and, to a great degree, live off the largess of the government.  When these folks go to the polls to vote, they have no incentive whatsoever to reduce the tax burden on the other 50-some percent who pay taxes to support them. It must be remembered that taxes, by their very nature, are an imposition upon the liberties of those who must pay them.

The letter then goes on to say……Our nation’s Founding Fathers outcry against England was that there should be “no taxation without representation.” Today, to secure liberty once again in this land, it might be time to raise a counter-call: “No representation without taxation.”

Taking this argument to its logical conclusion would mean that the Poor People should have “Less Rights” than those who produce more wealth.  The burden of creating the”Wealth of this Nation” is after all being shouldered by fewer Wealthy People. Is that the real  Democratic-Capitalistic model?  What do you think?

Most Letters to the Editors, on this hot button Immigration issue are running along the party lines showing little tolerance beyond their ideological moorings.  Their rants and raves can  broadly be classified into two extreme buckets - “This is an illegal invasion by a foreign country” or “America was founded by illegal immigrants” . A few letters brought slightly different angles to this debate.

Example:   With all the letters written to newspapers all over the country on this subject, it seems to me that some of the issues that SB1070 hasn’t covered are the defacing of America with the spray paint cans, knives, keying of gas station pump windows, the gang related garbage scratched into the bathrooms of restaurants and other establishments. When I was driving a tour bus a few years ago over in Los Angeles, I saw a huge 9 story picture sign on the side of a tall building that had three Mexican looking men standing and looking out to the public with the caption: ” Don’t forget to breed “.

Another letter: Your “White” readers and subscribers should get educated on the Hispanic/Latino people before they cast aspersions and assume that ALL Hispanics/Latinos are Mexican as many of your readers assume.  A recent letter criticizing the ‘Arizona Anti-Immigrant Law’ wrongfully assumed that all the Latinos/Hispanics demonstrating against the Arizona Law were ‘Mexican’. That is SO FAR from the truth because many demonstrators were either White …..

Another letter asks this question: In the beginning it was the Mexican drug cartels wreaking havoc in Arizona, so it made sense for any red-blooded American to empathize with Arizonians… but then it went to any and all illegal aliens (still within reason)… but now we are at the point where they want to repeal 14th Amendment.
We also have the opposition to the mosque near ground zero–that made sense to many of us–but now has spread across the country.
Which ethnic group is next?
Or are we simply heading towards ethnic cleansing?

The controversial Mosque near Ground Zero drew plenty of angry Letters to the Editors.

One letter urged not to sugar-coat the situation. Calling the planned Islamic center near the World Trade Center area (a Mosque) is like calling a hospital a cathedral because it has a chapel in it claimed the writer.

Stop this stupidity now said another writer. His question: Has this government become so politically correct that you have gone brain dead on the electorate?…..There’s a good chance that California would allow the Mosque to be built in Death Valley and I doubt anyone would object.

One letter asked: Cannot  Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf  ( the one who wishes to build the mosque) honor our loss as Americans? None of the families who lost loved ones on 9/11 want a mosque right beside the unmarked grave of their son, daughter, husband, wife, mother, father, or friend. This building will simply remind them of who took their loved ones from them.  Isn’t it a slap in the face?

An out-of the-box thinker had a solution: to put the mosque in the center of the destruction site … forming a triangle with a Christian church and a Jewish synagogue, with a monument in the center of the three saying:  “Peace, Understanding, Brotherhood”.

The letters came in strongly in support of WikiLeaks. Surprisingly there was no letter condemning the leaks. The main argument was that they gave a true picture of the war that the mainstream media could not or would not expose.

Here are some excerpts: The leaks show that the US has been deliberately understating the number of civilian casualties, covering up the degree of complicity between Pakistani intelligence as well as the corruption and incompetence of the Karzai government, and most surprisingly - though it has received little play in the mainstream media, the fact that the US knew the whereabouts of Osama Bin Laden as late as 2006 - and did nothing…………We do not yet know if heroic Pfc. Bradley Manning, held incommunicado in a Kuwait gulag, is responsible for the leaks.  If he is, the American people owe him a great debt.  We should do all we can to get him released. Kudos to Wikileaks.  At last we have real journalism.
Transparency?  Change?  Obama, you are not worthy to tie Julian Assange’s bootlaces.

Another letter said: Soldiers are nation destroyers, not nation builders. Having the army’s of the, “coalition of the willing” sent to nation build is at the very least, an insane idea. Troops are not mitigators, teachers, mediators, or missionary’s, they are killers. Henry Kissinger once was quoted as saying, “Military men are dumb, stupid animals to be used as pawns for foreign policy”. The recent killings of the Reuters photographers and innocent children gunned down by US troops seeking joy in their actions leaked by Wiki Leaks.com are some of the most telling reality’s of this conflict. Wiki Leaks.com is not an irresponsible entity, endangering our troops. Quite the contrary, they are heroes in my book getting the true story out of the travesty’s and murders taking place in these two illegal wars.

Anyone out there agreeing with Obama’s assertion that the leaked information is outdated, and poses a danger to national security?

Last posting in Publishaletter Blog had links to some of the letters on “My Own Private India” sent to the editor of Time Magazine. A long, well articulated open letter to Time was posted as a comment to that Blog. Rather than having that letter hidden in the comments section, we thought, we would reproduce the whole letter here and see what the readers think.

So, here is the entire Open Letter as it appeared in our comments section:

Mr. Richard Stengel, Editor
Time Magazine
1271 Avenue of the Americas
New York, New York 10020

Dear Mr. Stengel,
By way of introduction, I am John Carson, 74-year-old proud American businessman residing in Jacksonville, Florida. During my years on this earth I have found that the answer to living a worthwhile life is based upon the value system of honesty, integrity, truth, and credibility attached to a person’s name. I truly believe that also applies to a business, an institution or anything that relates to a standard that requires respect to the subject matter at hand.
For years your magazine has been the benchmark of these traits that created the longevity of your years in business. In other words, you were trusted. Over the past few years your liberal bias has gained control of your magazine’s brain. It is now in the gutter of hypocrisy and misleading thoughts of life in America. It is time for you to ask yourself what has happened to you, your staff, and your position of excellence in America’s world of journalism. It is a terrible feeling when you are no longer trusted. Your magazine has reached the point in which you have no credibility left to build your future around. We all make mistakes in life and I have made some for sure; however, I can never recall being mistrusted or making a mistake as big as you allowing the article “My Own Private India”, written by Joel Stein to be published in your magazine on July 5th. That for sure is the most insulting article ever published about a culture in America. I can not believe you would have ever allowed such an article relating to the black race in our country to be printed in your magazine. “Have you sold your soul to the liberals of America to just exist for a few more years?” “Have you lost everything that you stood for that made you the leader in your field about truth in America?” I built my life around credibility and you did also. You have lost yours. I pray that I will never lose mine.
I write this not to waste my time scolding you, but to tell you “the truth” about the “real” story about the people who have honored our nation by “coming to America”; the outstanding culture and people from India.
In January of this year, after spending months of recovery from knee replacement surgery, I was offered an opportunity which turned out to be a privilege of doing some consulting work for a hotel owned by four great Americans from India who have been very successful since arriving in America some 22 years ago. I happen to know one of the four arrived with only 200 dollars. I reserved my judgment of these people for a few months to see if they passed the value system test that I believe in so strongly. It is now almost seven months into my tenure with them and I want to tell you that I don’t think my life has ever been lifted up so much by any foursome of individuals before.
There is another person who is the brother of one of the four who is just as great. These five people stand for what has made America great. Mr. Stengel, these five people think harder, work harder and live by a code of ethics in running their business in as fine a manner as any I have ever seen in my lifetime. They are very fair and honorable to every employee. They want to give every guest the maximum in comfort and hospitality for every dollar spent. They only needed me because they had run several beach hotels and when the economy turned sour, they needed some creative thinking for a hotel that appealed to the corporate world of business. I can tell you my life, in my opinion, would not have been complete unless I had been given the opportunity to experience the real privilege of knowing what these five great Americans stand for in their principles of life. I will be completing my work assignment at the hotel within the next month; however, these five people have made such a mark on my life that I will never forget and I will for sure pass on many of my thoughts about them and their culture of principles to my grandkids.
By now I hope you are wondering why these people are so successful. I believe I can tell you. They are hard at work nurturing their businesses when others are watching the clock to go home. They involve themselves in every small and large detail of the business. They are totally dedicated to every phase of success in the business itself. They are not asking for any handouts, just a fair and honorable set of guidelines to compete in the world of business. They only want an equitable environment to work within.
Sometime ago, I began to do some checking and I could not find one person who has come from India that has gone broke, asked for a bailout, on government assistance, or cried for help in our system. I’m sure there are some, but I would bet the number is very few. They appear to be driven to succeed because they fear failure or just can’t accept failure or dependency on anyone or anything except the honest principles of hard work. They believe in themselves and their abilities to perform. We now have so many who have come to America from India who are great doctors, great leaders, and great thinkers in the business world. They seem to believe strongly in what America stands for. In so many ways, they are role models of what you can do with your life if given a democracy with which to function within. They are competitors and they are willing to sacrifice to gain the knowledge to prove their worthiness for any job or position of importance in our country. In my opinion, there has never been a culture introduced to the American way of life that has meant more to our country than those who have come from India to just have a chance at maximizing their lives and that of future generations. Now please compare that to our immigration problems in America of other cultures who seem to only want others to pay for their existence every day without paying their own way. As far as I know, the majority of people from India all came here legally. The people from India who have come to America have added to our productivity of every phase of our lives. They have done it right, the right way. Need I say more? And most of these people have only been in America 20 or 30 years. We should salute them for the example they are setting.
I urge you to be fair and write another article to show the other side of Joel Stein’s incompetent remarks that reflects an almost racial jealousy of those who have been models of immigration as to what has made America great. I predict they will add more to America than any culture introduced in the past 300 years to our country. They have earned the respect and admiration of every American. Just imagine what these people will mean and contribute to America in the future.
I have found the five of us don’t agree on every new idea or every aspect of running a hotel. However, we do totally agree on the principles to operate a hotel or any business by and the guidelines of life to live by. Show your guts, Mr. Stengel, and write the truth about the people in America from India. You will sleep better at night if you do so. We all need to correct our mistakes and your magazine made a big one. My guess is no article ever written about the people from India has ever distorted or hurt them or their culture more than your slandering of the real purpose in their lives than your “My Own Private India.” I don’t know Joel Stein, however, I can only think his life cannot measure up or come close to that of the equal of most people in America from India. By the way, Mr. Stengel, am I wrong or do we hardly ever seem to read or hear about the young adults born into the families of the people from India being involved in Gangs, or the drug problem that is so prevalent in society, as a whole. Also, I have not heard about the people from India being related to alcoholism or the growing drug problems, either selling or taking, as seemingly so many Americans are. I doubt many people from India have ever done the things Mr. Stein admits to in his article. If they had, their parents would probably have sent them to India for more training before they could qualify to “Come to America.”

Sincerely,

John Carson