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Commentary...
Sunday, April 20, 2008
The
US Economy and the Iraq/Afghanistan Wars
by
Charles M.
Melchior,
Chester County, Pennsylvania
Our current list of national economic
difficulties and governmental failures is a direct result of nearly 30
years of failed Republican policies. We are paying the price in many
ways for our national love affair with slick, emotionally appealing
Republican political rhetoric and candidates. We ignore the harsh
reality behind the deceitful words.
In their new book,
The Three Trillion Dollar War, Nobel prize winning economist Joseph
Stiglitz and Linda Bilmes project the cost of the Iraq/Afghan war to
the United States alone at 2 Trillion 700 Billion dollars through the
year 2017, as reported on the front page of March 10’s Philadelphia
Inquirer. Independently, the Congressional Budget Office estimates
the lower range of probable costs at a mere $1.2 to $1.7 Trillion
through the same time period. What is most remarkable is the very
fact that both reports assume the U.S would continue to fund VP
Cheney’s “endless war” for such a period of time and points out that
our gigantic budget deficits of the past 7 years, brought on by the
Bush tax cuts instituted as we invaded Afghanistan and then Iraq,
necessarily means borrowing for an annually recurring expense, thereby
adding to its total cost hundreds of Billions of dollars for interest
which must some day be repaid, along with the amounts originally
borrowed. Read more...
Thursday, April 3, 2008
PA's Marriage Amendment
Discriminates...
by
Paul and Jo Ann Hentz
The 14th Amendment
to the U.S. Constitution provides that “No state shall…deny to any
person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.”
Proponents of the
Marriage Amendment to our state Constitution seek to deny a segment of
our population equal protection of the law. But the Marriage Amendment
does not protect the institution of marriage. It is designed to codify
a narrow societal view of marriage which some find difficult to give
up. Codifying these religious preferences will deny same-sex couples
equal protection and therefore the amendment cannot be permitted and
laws now on the books that prohibit same-sex marriage must be
repealed.
Advocacy for denying
same-sex couples the right to marry is an unconscionable act of
discrimination. But more vile are those politicians who play the hate
card to enrich their coffers by exploiting the prejudices of those who
seek to force their own world view on the rest of us.
Advocates of the
marriage amendment are akin to those who advocated for Jim Crow laws
that denied Afro-Americans and others equal protection of the laws in
the previous century. Our own history has taught us the consequences
of discrimination. Discrimination begets prejudice, prejudice begets
intolerance, which begets hatred, which begets murder. We as a nation
have traveled down that path too often.
If our desire is to
strengthen marriage and family, then the state must permit the
marriage of same-sex couples who seek to form a legal, social and
emotional union. Like the rest of us, these families put down roots,
support businesses, pay taxes, and contribute to the stability of our
towns and institutions. There is no rational reason to deny them the
right to marry.
comment on this article...
Comment by Charles
Lane
The proponents
of this amendment claim that allowing same sex marriage will
undermine "traditional" marriage. This objection is made without
presenting any proof of what it claims. Any half-way intelligent
observer of the state of marriage in Pennsylvania and the USA
today, must conclude that the real threats to traditional
marriage are: poverty (lack of good-paying jobs and universal
health care), an emphasis on materialism and having it all now,
too much money and not enough compassion, and the bad example of
celebrities. Allowing same sex marriage is not going to increase
or reduce this sad trend; only a change of the national heart
can do that.
Another claim by
those who object to same sex marriage is that children growing up in
such a union will be "influenced" or forced into homosexuality. Again,
these people bring absolutely no proof to support their absurd
contention. In fact, if such a study were made, the result would
surely show that the rate of children raised in a same sex union who
turn out to be homosexual would be no different that the rate of
homosexual children raised in a traditional union.
Claims such as these
are printed in our newspapers and spoken on radio and television every
day, and no one seems able to call the speakers on it. We are a bunch
of cowards, when we should be standing up and demanding that people be
truthful in their claims.
Friday, March 14, 2008
What Is To be Done? Assessing The Antiwar Movement
By Matthew Smucker
That day saw the
largest coordinated global demonstrations in the history of the world.
Ten million people from more than 60 countries sent a clear message to
Washington that the world was saying no to a U.S. war against Iraq.
The newest manifestation of the antiwar movement seemed finally ahead
of the game. But when the Bush Administration ignored us, what were we
to do next? This was no easy question, and organizers understandably
struggled with direction, tactics and strategy.
Read more...
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