Only In Your Dreams
Great news for liberals! As the Inbox letter writer (Jacob L. Schagene) of May 29 informed us: “I never see the conservative attacking the left (it’s rarely happened); conservatives on the social media do tell me the news instead of attacking the left.” Since I don’t blog very often myself, I was unaware of this trend. It would mean that liberals need only to worry about attacks from money-soaked political committees.
It sounds like people as actual people would rather blog about current public issues than bash on Obama or Hillary Clinton. They want actual free speech, in other words. That would be great news for conservatives, libertarians, Rotarians and vegetarians, too.
Tom Louderback, Highlands
Wake Up!
Either Jacob L. Schagene is joking or is from another planet when he says the right does not attack the left. Has he not heard of Glenn Beck or Rush Limbaugh?
Joe Elder, Highlands
Arbitrary Government?
In response to Gregg Seidl’s May 15 Inbox letter questioning whether those who support gun rights are members of any “well regulated militia,” I offer two quotations for his consideration.
• “Certainly one of the chief guarantees of freedom under any government, no matter how popular and respected, is the right of citizens to keep and bear arms … The right of citizens to bear arms is just one guarantee against arbitrary government, one more safeguard, against the tyranny which now appears remote in America but which historically has proven to be always possible.”
• “I ask, sir, what is the militia? It is the whole people, except for a few public officials.”
The first quote is from Hubert Humphrey in 1959. The second quote is from George Mason, a delegate at the U.S. Constitutional Convention, and was made during the debates in the Virginia Convention on ratifying the Constitution in 1788. Incidentally, in the wake of the scandals involving the IRS and the Justice Department’s investigation of the Associated Press, does “arbitrary government” seem quite as remote anymore?
Rich Mills, Shawnee
Good Gun Skills
In response to Gregg Seidl’s picking-and-choosing comment about the Second Amendment, he seems to be the real picker in this case by saying that average citizens must be in a militia in order to keep and bear arms. And, by the way, the words “regulated militia” in those days meant you had to have good gun skills, not government regulating. Seidl fails to read correctly — the militia part reads as a quantifier that all people shall have the right to keep and bear arms, so the guns should be ours to prepare for the need of a militia. Basic reading skills might improve your and your buddies’ outlook.
Maggie Martin, South End
Paul Fakes Heart
In his presidential campaign speech last month (Why else would Sen. Rand Paul grandstand in New Hampshire?), our junior senator brazenly stretched character and hypocrisy to new heights. Forget behind-closed-doors Romney-style. Calculating Rand Paul publicly told his Republican audience that the GOP must fake an image of diversity and outreach to win in 2016. Forget honesty, sincerity and integrity. Paul pandered with cool, light and clever. What a mentor — what a civic lesson for our youth.
Forget the real-life massive contradiction of Paul’s cruel budget-cutting obsession and his paralysis of our U.S. government. In a saner era, Paul’s typical deeds were tagged life-threatening and treasonous. Today, Paul poses as presidential timber and plays his let’s-pretend-ploy as a winning strategy. Paul’s level of patronizing insult pales Romney’s “47%” and matches Romney’s truth-twisting cynicism.
Our commonwealth elected a callous, immature egotist to the U.S. Senate. Our nation crumbles and our citizens die of national neglect, as global warming terrorizes our heartland and turns our bounty into a wasteland — while oblivious Sen. Rand Paul struts on the national stage and plays the Tin Man with a new fake heart.
Michael Gregoire, St. Matthews
