Letters for April 30, 2008

April 30, 2008 07:34 am

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Can't compare Heston, Fonda

Regarding Sam Pollak's recent column on Charlton Heston:

In the early 1970s, the Navy in San Diego raised lots of money for Jerry's Kids. As appreciation, some of my fellow naval officers and I were invited to a special party where we met Hollywood stars who were also raising money for Jerry in a celebrity tennis touArnament.

Charlton Heston was there and was extremely personable and gracious. The following morning, as my wife and I were preparing to leave, we heard a knock on our car window, and it was Charlton Heston, tennis racket in hand. He just wanted to thank us and wish us a good day. It wasn't something he had to do, but that was his nature. I didn't even think about prying that tennis racket out of his hand.

To mention Hanoi Jane Fonda in the same column was an insult. I worked with many of the returning Navy POWs and in their debriefings they told of the time she went to Hanoi and how some of them were dragged naked through the streets as they wouldn't voluntarily meet with her propaganda agenda. Your admiration for her was solely because she was a beautiful woman and a good actress. It wasn't important that she betrayed her country.

Kinda narrow, Sam! Now she's old, still misguided, and was once married the equally nebulous Ted Turner. Ted says we'll all be cannibals in 30 years due to global warming.

My ole pappy used to say that some people were so narrow you could sleep six in a single bed. Better be careful Sam, some of the other five people in your bed might turn out to be cannibals.

Dick Carpenter

Cobleskill

Carpenter is a retired lieutenant commander in the U.S. Navy.

For our future, U.S. must fail

It is absolutely necessary for the good of the country that the U.S. completely fail in Iraq, and all our troops come home. If not, America may go on attacking other countries with impunity, just as Hitler did. The end result would be a very old and sad story. Major powers in the world would team up to crush the U.S. like a mad dog. That happened to Hitler, Napoleon, Philip II of Spain and others who were on top of the world at one time and thought they couldn't be knocked over.

I don't want to see my country crushed, which it will be if it goes along like a mad dog raging through the world.

We probably don't have to worry if the Democrats take the White House in 2008 and bring our Iraq fighting to an end. Then again, the military may by now have the politicians in its grip and demand the fighting continue. If that happens, Scenario No. 1 takes over, and the U.S. will indeed be crushed, maybe more in sorrow than in anger, by a coalition of the world's great powers. Not tomorrow or the next day, but at a certain time.

Political commentators are impressed by the U.S. being the sole superpower. All the countries I've mentioned were in their time the sole superpower, and all were defeated by coalitions. Being a sole superpower is fine if you don't test it. If you do, you're doomed. Bush didn't know that because he is unbelievably ignorant and driven by mad, destructive ideologues such as Cheney.

Soon we may return to normality. When that happens the entire Republican Party should be treated for dementia and insanity. They're the ones who have to be crushed.

Martin Wank

Oneonta

Ways to save in hard times

Now that the Bush administration has succeeded in driving the nation's economy into the ditch, people are looking for ways to cut expenses and tighten their belts. As a public service, I offer some suggestions, cuts that you can make to help navigate these hard times:

Pet toys and treats. (Sorry, Fido, you'll have to make do with this old stick.)

Body piercings. (Don't put holes where holes aren't meant to be.)

Cell phones. (Was there life before these energy hogs?)

Video Games (Read a book. They're free in the library.)

Tattoos. (If God wanted you to have tattoos, he would have installed them.)

Perfume, after-shave, etc. (You smell marvelous already.)

Pet groomers. (There he is, going after the dogs again.)

Vanity plastic surgery. (In the words of Billy Joel, "I love you just the way you are.")

There's my list. It's a start, albeit a shaky one. Feel free to add to it, and good luck in the future. I think we're all going to need it.

Lyle R. Chastaine

Stamford

Flag doesn't equal country

During the recent Obama-Clinton debate, the moderator took a phone call from a woman who questioned Obama's patriotism by asking if he didn't "love the flag" because he hasn't worn a flag pin in his lapel. I don't exactly recall Obama's response but at least one TV commentator said that wearing a flag pin hardly constituted a test of one's patriotism.

It would be too easy to question the woman's reason for asking the question, the possibility that it was a set-up. One might ask if the woman's vote is determined by a candidate's repetitions of "patriotic" sentiments, if she votes regularly and writes her representatives.

My own response would be less general than Obama's. I love my country _ the country, the people, not the government, certainly not the present quasi-government. The flag is a symbol, a powerful one for many people. And, while I respect it as symbolic of the country, it is still the country that I love, not the flag. Priorities matter.

William F. Roberts

Otego