Letters to the Editor - Lost May 27 2004

In response to your recent article on Sen. Zell Miller (News & Views, “With friends like these ...,” May 20), your overall theme is that he has somehow betrayed his Democratic roots and gone to work for the enemy. That premise is wrongheaded. In the governance of our nation, we need to expect and demand that our elected officials do not adopt an “us vs. them” mentality as they go about the country’s business. I would offer that Miller has stayed the course and that, on the other hand, many contemporary Democrats have betrayed the party’s legacy and strengths. Miller has remained loyal to the highest principles of the Democratic Party, while so many of his fellow Democrats have cast those principles aside and sunk to name-calling and stonewalling. In a very basic sense, the Democrats have lost their way and have disenfranchised so many good-meaning people who are capable of leading the party back to respectable national prominence.

If the Democrats are to survive as a viable national party, it will be through a return to the core values and beliefs of such great statesmen as John F. Kennedy and Franklin Roosevelt.

If our elected officials look at public service as a team sport in which their party must win, then they will have failed our great republic as well as the American people to whom they are accountable.

-- Bill Berbenich, Chamblee


br>?Qat whisperer
Firstes, i wude like to thank hollits fer writing such a nice artikle about me (Moodswing, “‘Mangey’ cats,” May 13). howebber i must object to her saying that i sed that i cud cure her qat. any sef respecicle qat whisperer wude not make such a outlanding promiss. cure is a werd fer charlatins.

plus she spelt qat fude worng.

-- Mangey Olde Qat


br>?Future’s so bright
I have a secret for Bob Barr. There are no good old days. There never was a time when our nation had any more “bedrock values” than it does today (Flanking Action, “Antiheroes,” May 13). Things are just different now. We may have to worry more now about guns being brought into school, but we don’t have to see slaves being beaten and tortured in the plantation down the street. We may have to worry now about drug dealers selling crack to teenagers, but we don’t have to worry about women having no right to vote, own property, work, etc.

There were plenty of people who did terrible things in the past and sometimes those people were honored and esteemed by the general public, just like today. If you start with the belief that our nation’s values are going downhill, then you will see only evidence that matches your belief. If our society could ever get this through their brains, then we can start to focus on all the good stuff happening these days and the future will become bright.

-- Jennifer Symms, Roswell


br>?Stop and think
What I think about “America’s soul is tortured” (Fishwrapper, May 13) is that your mind must be tortured. Instead of making intelligent conclusions, you have to sit around and let the liberal media tell you what to think, and vomit their propaganda all over your magazine. Your ignorance, or should I say bias (which is, by the way, bad reporting), is revealed when you fail to mention that there are pictures on the Internet of Middle Eastern men beheading a U.S. civilian with a butcher knife, a man who was not even a soldier and who was under the age of 30. Where are your useless rants and raves now?

These people slowly torture their own people; now what do you think they will do to American soldiers? Use your own mind and stop listening to the biased media. Make your own freakin’ conclusions about things.

While you are busy bashing a moral president who does have America’s best interest at heart, the people you are defending continue to rape, steal, murder and torture. But by all means, go ahead and defend them.

That young man who was beheaded was murdered slowly, painfully and in front of cameras so that the soldiers could disrespect him further by putting the images on the Internet. Yes, those poor Iraq soldiers, embarrassed as they were, still have their lives. This poor young man does not. He can never speak with his family again. At least these soldiers can. So, continue to poison the minds of youths if you will, but all I ask is that you stop and think about the people you are defending.

-- Heather Powers, Flowery Branch

John Sugg responds: Last week’s column was written before the news about Nick Berg, so it didn’t mention his brutal murder. I would only have changed the column to note that atrocities committed by terrorists don’t justify heinous acts committed in the name of the American people. Nowhere did I defend terrorists, nor would I.


br>?Shut it up
I am really getting tired of the propaganda that your filthy paper is putting out. You hail gays and alternative lifestyles and try to beat back the decent people of America. To call this Bush’s war and make excuses for people who do nasty things to others in prison while wearing the American uniform is an insult to intelligent Americans (Fishwrapper, “America’s soul is tortured,” May 13). How in the world you’ve stayed in business printing this crap is beyond me, but then again, you mainly promote to left-wing radicals who don’t have an independent, let alone bright, bone in their body.

Whether you want to admit it or not, Bush is doing a great service to this country for you and you need to start appreciating it instead of rallying behind and supporting the terrorists! They know exactly how to get to this country because they have had years to study it, and you and a lot on the left are right down their alley. If you don’t start getting a little more fair and balanced with your editorials, I will boycott your paper and get some petitions up to protest your biased and hurtful views of your president and of our country. Not all who enjoy your publication — and it is pretty decent — want to hear this rhetoric every week. You’re not a damn political paper, so shut it up and do what you do best, OK?

-- Don Wilson, Oak Park


br>?Typical
CL doesn’t even support the F-22 (News & Views, “The F-22’s hidden cost,” May 6)? Geez! What is the point of having a military? Oh, I get it, a military. Something we don’t need in the wacked world of extreme leftism. Y’all lefties start your own country with a socialist, government-centered country where everyone is happy, the poor and homeless are fed and worshipped, and we, the conservatives, will come down with our Pentagon toys, take your country, kick your ass back to reality, and you can start your willy-nilly left-wing crusade all over again.

Just a typical rant from a typical low-brow conservative.

-- Michael Merck, Suwanee