As we watch the atrocities of the Middle East lead to further atrocities, and we suss out the subtle differences between “war” and “war crime,” we realize the prevailing norm of the world’s leaders is that peace and justice can be achieved only with cruelty — it’s simply a matter of finding out how much it will take.
Being immersed in this bloody philosophy, we can’t even feign impartiality in our disregard for humanity; there has to be one side which is always right and has our unwavering support, and one side which is always wrong and earns nothing but out unveiled contempt.
But there can be no peace without justice, and no justice without mercy. Still, we endorse and perpetuate a process that effectively prevents peace. It demonizes “those” people, not merely their acts of violence. We say “monsters” and “animals” did this; no, it was humans like us, with emotions like ours.
We need to exercise the same policy toward both Israel and the Palestinians — support them when they are right, call them out when they are wrong. No more gold-plating Israel’s defense or looking the other way when their settlers appropriate Palestinian property. No more pretending the suffering in Gaza is nothing.
Not only do we need to stop the current cycle of violence and resume talks, we need to teach peace. I doubt if the United States has the wherewithal to do that, but non-violent protest (including civil disobedience) and respectful, intelligent discussion are primary ingredients in getting and keeping peace. And incidentally, these are basic components of democracy — or have we forgotten?
JEFFREY HOBBS, Springfield, Ill.
Let us assume that the members of Hamas are fanatic Jihadists bent on achieving some goal, even by suicide, and will resort to the extremes of savagery. Wouldn’t it then follow that an overreaction from Israel and the United States is exactly what they want, or at the very least, not entirely unwelcome or not considered? In turn, would it not make sense to lower the temperature, even for an interim. Obviously, Hamas is willing to negotiate the release of the hostages. A total humanitarian crisis in Gaza will have ramifications for the rest of the century, perhaps beyond. If I can speak of this situation with sang froid, it is, admittedly, because of my distance from the event. But, isn’t it high time that somebody stopped the madness? Any comparisons with 9/11 can be meaningful to the extent that past mistakes need not be repeated.
STEVEN ROSENZWEIG, Brooklyn, N.Y.
Recent reports state that Trump and his lawyers are asking to delay his four separate criminal trials until after the election, so as not to “cripple his chances of being elected.”
That justification is false, and it is dangerous to our democracy. In fact, the opposite is true. Voters need to know whether a presumed candidate for President of the United State is guilty of any of the 91 serious criminal charges against him BEFORE the election.
Court trials, conforming to our system of Justice, are the best and only way we can know whether an accused person is guilty or not guilty. An innocent candidate for office could be presumed to want the trials’ results before the election. A criminal candidate can be presumed to want to delay his trials until after we have voted.
Delaying trials cripples our chances of knowing if the candidate is a crook.
BRUCE JOFFE, Piedmont, Calif.
I had just turned to the last page of the TPP (9/15/23), when three words caught my eye: “Nader” “Strategy” and “Satire.” My first thought was that the copy editor was messing with us. I wiped the iced tea I had spewed off my face and lap and read the whole last page. Okey dokey.
Ralph Nader asks what Joe Biden’s exit strategy was for achieving peace in Ukraine. First of all, it is not our place to dictate an exit strategy for the beleaguered Ukrainians. They are fighting for their lives. They are the people being attacked. I’m pretty sure their exit strategy is to push Putin, the little rat-faced thug, all the way back to the far side of Russia. That would be my exit strategy, but as to lecturing Biden on strategy, how many elections, good laws, and good plans has Biden finessed, and how many have the Third Party Activists (TPA) achieved, unless the plan was to get the worst possible candidates elected?
Recently, in a letter to the editor, two TPAs asked us to give Robert Kennedy Jr. a chance. How about you give Biden and the Democrats a chance or even a break? They said Kennedy Jr. held a “controversial” position as an anti-vaxer. “Controversial” does not cover the evil that using his platform (his family’s good name) to espouse his ridiculous assertion that will kill people.
After watching, year after year, your “party’s” screw-up, which resulted in the Baby Shrub, the loss of Congress for Obama, and the ascension of the putrid Orange blob to power, I am fed up with you. You have so much more in common with the MAGA crowd than you do with Democrats.
Neither you nor the MAGA crowd will ever admit you were wrong, nor will you learn from your mistakes. You will never take responsibility for your actions — like admitting that your screw ups got us into Iraq and Afghanistan, and whatever the hell this hot mess is going on right now. You both have trouble with words. Self defense is not hawkish. Hawkish would be all the authoritarian wealthy elites you never call out. How much damage are you doing by giving hope to Putin and Hamas by demanding that the US stop aid to our allies, and, in the case of Putin, when the Ukrainians are kicking Putin’s sorry ass. (Rule number one in warfare: Don’t quit when you are winning.) And why have we not heard a word about Trump’s sharing classified info with Putin and Iran, which encouraged these horrific attacks? Neither of you ever do anything positive to solve problems; you are both just grievance machines.
While you TPAs have been whining about what you want and can’t get, we Democrats, whom you insist on demonizing, are putting our heads down and getting the job done, despite you.
After years of study of the TPAs, I have come to the conclusion that you are still just the cynical counter-culture, nihilist (without the violence) adjacent yahoos, which accomplished nothing but giving liberals a bad name. You were never the cool kids, and you still aren’t. Your refusal to vote for Hillary and now Biden, both good, patriotic people who are capable of empathy and whose years of selfless service to this country makes them eminently qualified for the office, is a vote for the Iraq incursion, this disgusting Congress, and all this evil we are experiencing.
Until you are ready to accept responsibility for your part, shut the hell up. BTW, who in the hell is Jill Stein?
P. ANN WHITE, Meridian, Texas
The new playground of our “societal rich kids” is rife with these pillagers of honesty, decency, morality and ethics corrupting our humanity, democracy and threats to civilization itself. It was “moneyed interests” that his daddy’s money got him into the political arena, as well as moneyed interests that saved his “misogynistic exploits” from going to prison as well. This is, unfortunately, our “societal dilemma” when you’re gifted at birth with a “silver spoon” in your mouth.
“We the People” have allowed the continued “moneyed interests of the few” over the humane and moral “betterment of the many” from our very inception forward.
The time has come for the culmination of a multitude of factors associative to our nation’s stability and security is dealt with the understanding of reality. We are a nation/world that has intentionally and purposefully defied and denied reality due to the threatening effects/affects of the power and control, statuesque who’ve controlled in order to pillage, corrupt and dictate their wills via religion, culture and economically.
We can no longer deny evolution in all its varied contexts and govern with a 16th-century mentality, outdated and antiquated with 21st-century technology threatening our very existence, as purported by some of the creators of AI, adding to our massive stockpile of enough deadly weaponry for world annihilation.
What the like of the misogynistic-minded societal reprobates like Matt Gaetz need to learn is that the collaborative interests of “We the People’s” betterment (men and women) and our primary and predominantly governed nation (75% male/25% female) is largely attributed to our macho mindsets of “it’s my way or the highway,” antithetical to “that dog just doesn’t hunt anymore.”
FRANK C. ROHRIG, Milford, Conn.
From The Progressive Populist, November 15, 2023
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